HFA Archives

Tax-exempt bond finance can be brought to bear on one of the nation’s most pressing needs: the preservation of aging rural housing portfolios.

Section 8 property owners who refinanced their debt through the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) Mark-to-Market program, mainly in the late 1990s through early 2000s, may qualify for budget-based rent adjustments under a new program launched this year by HUD.

Earlier this year, federal officials announced that the Federal Housing Administration (FHA)’s Risk-Sharing Initiative would be extended indefinitely, strengthening a resource that has become increasingly vital in recent years for State Housing Finance Agencies (HFAs).

A new land banking program in Colorado aims to help developers purchase land for affordable housing, solving the unique problem of not having tax credits to purchase land, as well as creating access to development in rural areas. 

Minnesotans hoping to bolster the state’s affordable housing stock may donate to affordable housing projects, requesting to have their donation allocated to a specific project or a general affordable housing fund and receive a tax credit of 85 percent of their donation through a new state program.

A lack of workforce housing is a growing element of the nation’s housing crisis and some developers who typically build affordable housing are creatively pulling together financing for housing projects for workers who make above area median income (AMI) but cannot afford market-rate rents.

The National Council of State Housing Agencies (NCSHA) recently finalized updates to its Recommended Practices in Housing Credit Administration (RPs or Recommended Practices).

Across America, the anti-exclusionary zoning rebellion is in full swing, and like many localized revolutions, it takes revolutionary thinking – like rediscovering the asset class that built 19th-century urban America, which over the last 50 years has become a capital backwater: the family storefront dwelling.

An initiative by the National Council of State Housing Agencies (NCSHA) aims to expand the financing of affordable housing by creating partnerships between state financing agencies and healthcare systems.

When the Low Income Housing Tax Credit program was created in 1986, it was a far cry from the robust development engine it is today.

Property managers are often asked to wear many hats: owners’ representative, rent collector, social worker, maintenance coordinator, event planner and building/systems expert, just to name a few. It’s a complex, multi-faceted job that I have immense respect for, especially as they served on the front lines during the pandemic and continue to adapt to a dramatically shifting landscape.

 A project under construction now in Denver will provide 56 affordable apartments for formerly homeless young adults aged 18 to 24, as well as those “aging out” of foster care.