AHFCABS
AFFORDABLE HOUSING FUTURE CASH FLOW ASSET-BACKED SECURITIZATION
Financing Affordable Housing at Scale
WHAT IS IT
The structure that converted affordable housing’s most reliable future cash flows into investment-grade capital without pledging properties or disturbing existing stakeholders.
The Challenge
Well-run affordable-housing properties generate dependable income for many years, but that income arrives slowly. Developers and owners of LIHTC and Section 8 portfolios hold long-dated, highly creditworthy future cash flows, but lack the capital to build new housing, acquire existing portfolios, or reinvest in their communities today.
The Solution
Since 2017, Westwood has applied its structured-finance expertise to one of the country’s most pressing problems: the shortage of affordable housing. The firm originated AHFCABS: a structure that allows developers and owners of LIHTC and Section 8 portfolios to convert long-dated, highly creditworthy future cash flows into investment-grade capital today, without encumbering their properties or disturbing existing lenders, tax-credit investors, or regulatory agreements.
The result is capital that developers can recycle into new construction, preservation, and rehabilitation, often in the high-cost, job-rich markets where affordable housing is hardest to finance.
Three steps from future cash flow to capital today.
HOW IT WORKS
1
IDENTIFY FUTURE CASH FLOWS
Westwood analyzes a portfolio’s long-dated revenue streams: management fees, cash flow distributions, and other reliable receivables from LIHTC and Section 8 properties with near-97% average occupancy.
STRUCTURE INVESTMENT-GRADE NOTES
2
AHFCABS packages the most reliable, senior slice of those future receipts into investment-grade structured notes rated by Moody’s in the “A” range without pledging the underlying properties.
3
DEPLOY CAPITAL TODAY
Developers receive immediate capital they can reinvest in building new homes, preserving existing portfolios, or acquiring new properties, enabling approximately 28% additional housing units over a 30-year horizon.
The Numbers Behind the Asset Class
KEY METRICS
$4B+
TOTAL SECURITIZATION PROCEEDS
~70%
WESTWOOD’S MARKET SHARE
97%
AVERAGE PORTFOLIO OCCUPANCY
+28%
ADDITIONAL UNITS ENABLED (30 YR)
2019
FIRST AHFCABS CLOSING
Ratings by Moody’s · Cornell Law School analysis, Feb. 2026 · Not indicative of future performance.
Why It Matters
Properties are never pledged. Existing lenders, tax-credit investors, and regulatory agreements are unaffected. The key feature of AHFCABS is that underlying properties themselves remain secure and unencumbered.
A Cornell Law School published whitepaper indicates the structure can enable approximately 28% additional housing units over a 30-year horizon; capital that developers can recycle into new construction, preservation, and rehabilitation in the high-cost, job-rich markets where affordable housing is hardest to finance.