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HUD recently awarded $54 million to 182 fair housing organizations across the country under its Fair Housing Initiatives Program. These grants allow the organizations to provide fair housing enforcement by conducting investigations, testing to identify discrimination in the rental markets, and filing fair housing complaints with HUD or equivalent state and local agencies.
HUD recently requested public comment on plans to implement the key changes the VAWA Reauthorization Act of 2022 (VAWA 2022) made to the Violence Against Women Act of 1994. Since the 2013 amendments, VAWA has applied to the LIHTC program. However, neither the Treasury Department nor the IRS has issued any formal regulations or guidance on VAWA implementation for the LIHTC program. Nevertheless, LIHTC owners are still subject to VAWA’s mandates and some state tax credit allocating agencies have taken proactive steps with their own VAWA guidance.
In the LIHTC program, if the income of tenants of a low-income unit in the building increases above the limit allowed, the next available unit (NAU) of comparable or smaller size in the building will be rented to tenants having a qualifying income. This is the NAU rule and it applies whenever a household's income rises above 140 percent (or 170 percent at deep rent-skewed sites) of the tax credit program's income limits.
From time to time, your site may get phone calls, letters, or other inquiries for information about residents. The request can seem innocent, or it may seem official. And some requests will be. But granting even innocent requests can cause trouble. Sites are responsible for ensuring the privacy and confidentiality of the information they collect from applicants and households. And, if you give information to the wrong person, a resident could be harmed and you could get sued.
The IRS recently published a final rule to implement Congress’s 2018 authorization of a third set-aside option for LIHTC sites. Under the LIHTC program, all tax credit owners must formally notify the IRS of their minimum set-aside election for their building or site when they file IRS Form 8609. Meeting your site’s minimum set-aside is the most important goal you have as a tax credit manager. If you meet the set-aside, the owner of your site will be entitled to claim its tax credits.
It’s not unusual for a household to request a transfer to a new unit at a tax credit site. The household may want to get away from noisy neighbors, want a bigger unit, or have a better view. Or there may be a change in household composition or a reasonable accommodation request for a unit that would meet the needs of a disabled household member better than the current one. Also, the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) requires tax credit sites to have emergency transfer plans in place for victims of covered VAWA violence.
If residents at your tax credit site pay for their own utilities, the amount of each unit’s utility allowance affects the maximum monthly rent you can collect from the household. The utility allowance is generally based on an estimate of reasonable household consumption and cost for the unit size. Utility allowances are intended to reflect “typical” utility costs, not actual bills or costs paid by any individual household.
One of the most important jobs for the manager of a tax credit site is keeping the owner informed of how well you’re managing the site. The owner wants to know on a monthly or quarterly basis how well the site is doing financially and to be assured that there are no compliance problems threatening the tax credits. To convey this information most effectively, you should prepare a written management report giving the owner the kind of information it needs to make informed decisions about the site.
Tax credit site managers often find themselves spending much time and expense processing applications for ineligible households. Hearing about a good deal, casual visitors may submit applications not realizing that they’ll be considered over-income or student households. One way to increase the chances that those filling out applications at your site qualify for the tax credit program is to educate visitors and anyone expressing interest in housing at your site what it takes to be eligible for a LIHTC unit before they apply.
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