LIHTC Archives

What happens if a development doesn’t qualify for one of Housing New Mexico’s many regular affordable housing programs?

Taking the cue from the success of build-to-rent (BTR) single-family homes in the market rate space, some affordable housing developers are building the product for low-income families looking to live in single-family homes.

For mission-committed developers who have taken up the task of building subsidized affordable housing for seniors, HUD’s Section 202 program has continued to provide a vital financial boost to new senior housing projects.

Virginia residents who want to work for Fairfax County or make their views known on matters pending before the county government now may not have far to go, thanks to a Low Income Housing Tax Credit project being developed by Lincoln Avenue Communities on an underused parking lot at the county Government Center using an innovative “quadruplet” structure.

The National Housing Crisis Task Force issued a broad swath of policy recommendations for the new administration to address the nation’s housing crisis, including calling for the federal government to “fundamentally restructure” its organization to address the problem and provide billions to rehabilitate existing subsidized affordable housing stock.

When the CTA went into effect on Jan. 1, 2024, both newly formed and previously established companies, large and small (but mainly small) were to provide certain information to FinCEN detailing: 1) “Beneficial Ownership” and 2) “Company Applicants.”

After the 2024 elections, many in the multifamily affordable housing sector worry that key Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) and Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) funds may be clawed back by the incoming administration. These funds provide tax credits, grants and other forms of incentives for green and clean energy deployment and have been crucial to closing the funding gap for multifamily affordable housing in recent years.

One way to achieve economies of scale in affordable housing is to acquire two adjacent properties, renovate both and then run them as a single entity. That’s what Affordable Housing and Services Collaborative (AHSC) is doing in Dorchester, MA, a neighborhood of Boston.

Any outside observer may assume some unease amongst the low-income housing industry. Buffeted on the one hand by residual stressors from the COVID-19 pandemic and on the other by the uncertain prospects of an incoming federal administration keen on cutting spending and shrinking government programs, the affordable housing landscape is experiencing an inflection point.

This fall, the National Council of State Housing Agencies (NCSHA) recognized 17 programs offered by state housing finance agencies across the nation that creatively developed tools to tackle their communities’ affordable housing challenges.

For an affordable multifamily housing project to qualify for the maximum allowable amount of four percent LIHTCs, at least 50 percent of the project’s aggregate basis (consisting of eligible basis plus land) must be financed with the proceeds of tax-exempt bonds issued pursuant to an allocation of private activity bond volume cap by a state housing authority or another municipal issuer (the 50 percent test).

Architects, developers and builders take justifiable pride in completing a successful affordable multifamily project. This is even more so the case at The Pryde, an LGBTQ-affirming development for seniors in the Hyde Park neighborhood of Boston.