Tax Credit Advisor Article Archives

The legendary American humorist sure hit the nail on the head with that quip. Even though he spoke those words about 100 years ago, they still ring true today.

I talked to a handful of leading affordable housing developers for an article in this month’s issue on what challenges and opportunities they are facing in 2021. While not a comprehensive survey, I think it represents a good sampling of larger developers.

Not many buildings have their own rail system, much less one that runs across the ceiling. And very few have conference rooms where you can look out and see elephants and giraffes from the windows. But Zoo Atlanta’s Savanna Hall has both.

2020 was a year of superlatives. The worst, the longest, the most dysfunctional, the most frustrating, the most divisive, etc.…the entire world is more than ready to put the year in the rear-view mirror. Since dashing out my last column, we even got a little bit of good news, a hint that 2021 may be going in the right direction. Two Coronavirus vaccines were approved and distribution has begun. A desperately needed emergency relief package and year-end spending and tax package was enacted after months of congressional stalemate.

Income averaging has achieved tax credit eligibility for all 135 units, including workforce housing units at up to 80 percent of area median income (AMI), at a development set to rise from a Boston trolley parking lot.

You don’t often hear “affordable” and “zero-carbon” in the same sentence, because for housing development these goals are seen as being in tension. But in Salt Lake City, one progressive project is addressing both goals simultaneously, in a city that could use such outcomes.

Over a long career of observing developers at close range, I’ve evolved an understanding of how they think and act, and, as a result, find myself with an unexpected sympathy for them. Though the algorithmic model that follows may seem reductive, time and again it’s been critical to making good deals happen and succeed. Consider it the wisdom of experience.

I have good news for affordable housing developers modernizing their properties through a RAD conversion: Software can eliminate many of the complexities involved in managing the recapitalized assets. But—and this is a big but—only if these developers have taken some fundamental preparations. Based on our experiences working with developers on RAD conversions, my colleagues and I recommend the following:

The Federal Housing Administration’s Multifamily Housing Accelerated Processing Guide is updated periodically every few years. The 2020 MAP Guide update, set to go into effect on March 18, weighs in at 903 pages and is full of new guidance—some positive, some not so positive—for borrowers and lenders wanting to use FHA’s multifamily programs.

After a year living through the COVID-19 pandemic, we’ve heard all the platitudes. This is the new normal. We’re all in the same storm, but not necessarily in the same boat. We’ve developed new vocabulary words, like “quarantini” and “doomscrolling.” We’ve become at-home information technology specialists, setting up mesh wi-fi networks to support parents working from home and kids learning from home.

Holly Wiedemann is an award-winning developer based in Lexington, KY and a leading advocate for affordable housing and historic preservation.

Affordable housing advocacy and policy often prioritizes people who are most in need of housing, and understandably so—nearly one-third of Americans are housing cost burdened. But, the aid for housing often cuts off those who aren’t low-income enough to qualify, yet aren’t wealthy enough to afford market-rate housing.