Those who need affordable housing just got an early, if indirect, Christmas gift — $4 million of new loan money that will be made available to housing providers by the Community Foundation for Palm Beach and Martin Counties.

The foundation announced the initiative at the Florida Housing Coalition’s statewide affordable housing conference in Orlando earlier this week. Utilizing a grant from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the Community Foundation made the $4 million low-interest loan to the Florida Community Loan Fund, which will invest it in a new $25 million Affordable Housing Preservation Loan Pool Demonstration Program. Other affordable rental housing projects in Martin and Palm Beach counties also will be supported.

Local non-profit leaders hailed the program but said they would need more information before they apply for the money.

“What leadership on behalf of the Community Foundation the first community foundation in the country to do this,” said Jan Huffert, administrator of Martin County’s Intergovernmental and Community Relations Division, who has been attending the statewide housing conference at which the loan was announced. “I look forward to getting home and evaluating if we can use it.”

“We’re seeking funding from every avenue right now,” said Jody Clifford, Habitat for Humanity of Martin County’s development director. “But at Habitat, what we do is hold mortgages for our Habitat homeowners a 30-year no-interest loan. If it were a low-interest loan (from the Florida Community Loan Fund), we probably wouldn’t apply.”

Community Foundation president and CEO Leslie Lilly said her organization did a lot of research before implementing the loan.

“We talked to many organizations in both Martin County and Palm Beach County to understand the organizations working in the housing field. We also talked to private developers who partner with non-profits,” Lilly said. “We have a history of grant-making on behalf of those trying to deal with housing issues.”

In these tough economic times, Lilly said the Community Foundation has concentrated its grants on organizations that provide food and shelter. She cited a 2007 survey the Community Foundation commissioned that found that since 2000, the number of extremely cost-burdened renter households increased about 40 percent in Martin and Palm Beach counties.

“We found that there is an affordable housing gap for low- and middle-income workers,” Lilly said. “This loan can help them and come back to the foundation and be recycled.”

“Everyone recognizes that Florida has tremendous issues around affordability of houses here, and they’re not likely to be over in the short-term,” Lilly said. “With all that bad news, it was nice to put some good news out there.”

Shawna Gallagher Vega