MAKING THE PROCESS EASIER

Carding is a pioneer in the creation of affordable assisted living. Through a combination of housing and economic development financing tools, Medicaid waiver services and unique state regulations Carding leads and facilitates the creation of these desperately needed communities. In close collaboration with its financing and developer partners, Carding has given frail low-income seniors who need assisted living services a choice about where and how they live their lives.

 

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Our Areas of Expertise
Finances
Risk Management
Partnerships
Regulatory Environment

ABOUT THE CARDING GROUP

The Carding Group, LLC is a partnership of experienced public finance firms who collaborate in the financial structuring, development, ownership and operations of Affordable Assisted Living Communities (“AALC”) around the country. The Carding Group, LLC, (“Carding”) partners with local real estate owners and developers, who are unfamiliar with the economic benefits, financing opportunities and operational requirements associated with Affordable Assisted Living Communities, to develop this underutilized and desperately needed asset class.

OUR HISTORY

In 2012 Michael J. Best, Kevin Fiore, Bob Downing and Rob Downing joined forces to form Carding Group, LLC. These four principals have decades of experience in tax exempt bonds, tax credit equity and affordable housing development. The team began applying their collective skills to the creation of a new asset class – a hybrid of affordable housing and assisted living. Their first communities were in Illinois, Indiana and Arizona; today Carding affiliates are also owners of communities in the District of Columbia and New Jersey. New development is expected to begin in Massachusetts and Pennsylvania in 2022 and 2023.

Carding seeks out, partners with, and educates, developers on the benefits and risks of AALC development and ownership. Carding then brings lenders and investors interested in the concept of AALC into the transaction. Further, Carding oversees, assists or manages the development, construction, lease-up and operational phases of the projects alongside their regional developer partners.

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WHAT IS AFFORDABLE ASSISTED LIVING?

The Carding Group, LLC’s definition of Affordable Assisted Living is assisted living facilities financed with Tax-exempt private activity bonds and 4% Low Income Housing Tax Credits (‘LIHTC’) and subsidized with Medicaid reimbursement through a home and community-based setting (‘HCBS’) waiver. These are new construction or adaptive reuse of existing assets and from the outset are designed, financed and operated as affordable facilities.

In the absence of Affordable Assisted Living, many poor, frail senior citizens, who would benefit from assisted living services, are forced to place themselves into institutions (nursing homes or skilled nursing facilities), often resulting in one, a deterioration of their health and wellbeing, and two, an unnecessary Medicaid expense for the State. Without adequate resources or training, families with elderly loved ones, unable to afford market rate assisted living or costly home care, are faced with a similar dilemma – try to care for their parents or grandparents on their own, or place them in an inappropriate institutional setting.