Michael A. Costa, President and Chief Executive Officer of California-based Highridge Costa Companies, has been inducted recently into the California Housing Consortium’s 2018 California Housing Hall of Fame, Private Sector, in recognition of his many contributions to the affordable housing industry. The induction took place at the Consortium’s 2018 Policy Forum & California Housing Hall of Fame Awards, held on May 11 at the Fairmont Miramar Hotel in Santa Monica, California.
The Consortium is a non-partisan advocate for the production and preservation of housing that is affordable to low- and moderate-income Californians. Each year, the Hall of Fame Private Sector honoree is acknowledged as an industry visionary who not only understands the complexity of affordable housing, but has taken a leadership role in advancing the development, financing, or investing in affordable housing projects that add value to local communities and enhance the lives of the people who become affordable housing residents.
Costa is considered an industry expert in the development, operation and investment in tax credit-based affordable housing for families and seniors throughout the U.S. and Puerto Rico. Through his extensive utilization of both federal and various state tax credit programs over the years, he has gained a wealth of specialized knowledge of the intricacies of tax credit financing and syndication. Throughout a career spanning nearly three decades, he has supervised the development and financing of nearly 40,000 units of affordable multifamily housing.
In 2017, he was inducted into Affordable Housing Finance (AHF) magazine's Affordable Housing Hall of Fame. He was named the Freddie Mac Multifamily Builder of the Year in 2000 by the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) and the 1999 Multifamily Builder of the Year by Multifamily Executive magazine.
In addition to being a Board member and Treasurer of the California Housing Consortium, he is also a member of the NAHB Multifamily Leadership Board and of the Board of the California Council for Affordable Housing and recently completed a term of seven years as Chairman of the Board of Directors for the Community Financial Resource Center of Los Angeles (now R.I.S.E. Financial Pathways), one of California’s most active nonprofit CDFIs. He also holds the CAASH (Certified Active Adult Specialist in Housing) designation from the NAHB.
Under his direction, the Highridge Costa Companies specialize in the development, financing, construction and asset management of affordable and mixed-income housing for families and seniors throughout the U.S., utilizing low-income housing tax credits, as well as other types of public and private financing. Over the past 25 years, Costa and his team, under the companies’ various identities, have been responsible for developing and growing a portfolio of approximately 28,000 housing units in more than 279 communities throughout the U.S. and Puerto Rico, all of which were financed using tax credits.
“I am very humbled and honored to receive this recognition and share it with the many members of our team over the past 25 years for creating such an incredible portfolio of affordable housing. We as a company have accomplished much and established ourselves in a relatively short period of time as a legacy player in our industry through the creation, preservation, ownership, management, operation and investment in affordable housing. Few industries have a greater impact on low-income Americans than does ours. So we take tremendous pride in our ability to create quality new affordable multi-family housing and feel very fortunate that our ‘work’ truly changes lives,” said Costa.
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