CARLSBAD, CA—Locally based Chelsea Investment Corp. partners with local social-services agencies to help its residents solve problems ranging from domestic abuse to chemical dependency and more, founder and CEO Jim Schmid tells GlobeSt.com. The firm was ranked 16^th in the nation on Affordable Housing Finance's Top 50 Affordable Housing Developers list for 2014, has a huge market presence in San Diego and was recently honored for Affordable Project of the Year for Alpha Square in East Village and as Builder of the Year by the Building Industry Association. We caught up with Schmid to discuss ways the firm enhances the lives of its projects' residents and changes and challenges he sees in the affordable-housing sector.

GlobeSt.com: How does your firm go way beyond the norm to enhance the lives of your projects' residents?

Schmid: We partner with excellent service providers. We do a number of different kinds of projects. One of the subsets is housing for people in one manner of difficulty or another. When you're providing affordable housing, housing alone isn't the complete solution; there's generally some reason people are threatened with homelessness, whether it's abuse, substance dependency or mental illness. We partner with experts, agencies that have perfected the craft of assessing the problem and providing services to help get them back on their feet.

GlobeSt.com: How would you characterize the affordable-housing market's strength today as opposed to, say, 10 years ago?

Schmid: I think the business is more challenging. Housing costs more than it used to, so being in the affordable-housing space means you need to put together sources more creatively to get the projects built. The level of skill of affordable-housing builders is higher than it was 10 years ago—it's more sophisticated. We lost some sources such as redevelopment funds, which were a mainstay, so we've had to go to various other resources out there that help veterans, the disabled and the homeless—they're available to them. More housing is being built for each special, targeted population.

GlobeSt.com: What progress do you foresee for this sector in the future?

Schmid: You have to be nimble to deal with the twin problems of increasing costs and diminishing resources. We're constantly looking for more ways to build. It's not just a problem in the affordable-housing space—all housing is terribly expensive now, and it's a problem for market-rate builders also. There are a number of coalitions now working on the cost side of it. Point Loma Nazarene University did a study on cost drivers earlier this year as it applies to regulatory components. The housing commission is showing great leadership on how to make all housing less costly, which is especially important in the affordable niche because you have to go to subsidies when the funds aren't there. The higher cost per unit, the fewer units you can build. The housing commission is publishing its own study on the cost elements of housing in general, and it's due to be rolled out pretty soon.

GlobeSt.com: What else should our readers know about your company?

Schmid: We have been doing this for a long time—we're more than 30 years old—and since the early '90s we have focused primarily on affordable and LIHTC to get this done. We do special-needs and special-purpose housing, as well as inclusionary housing where communities are required to build a percentage of affordable among market-rate housing. We are San Diego-centric, although we do have projects in other areas. We are client driven in the inclusionary realm.