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The low-income housing tax credit program has undergone a notable transformation over the past year. The Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008 (HERA; P.L. 110-289), which was signed into law on July 30, 2008, contained significant changes that affect compliance for LIHTC sites.

You may be interested in converting some residential units at your tax credit site to another use. For example, your site might need a security office or childcare center. But before you can use residential units for other purposes, significant due diligence must be performed. And part of that process involves getting prior approval from HUD.

As a site owner or manager, you probably know that you can evict residents for lease violations. But there is another basis for eviction—independent of lease violations—known as termination for “good cause.” But what exactly is good cause?

Just over one year ago the industry received the long-awaited 8823 Guide. It was greeted with a standing ovation when it was first delivered to the state housing finance agencies. Six months after its release, the cheering stopped.

Nowadays, it's all too common to hear reports of sex offenders occupying subsidized housing units. The question you face as a site owner or manager is what you should do if you learn that a sex offender is living at your site.

HUD requires all applicants to give you their Social Security number. But what if an applicant says she does not have one? HUD rules do not require you to accept applicants who do not have a Social Security number, nor do HUD rules bar you from accepting such applicants. Generally, sites do not reject these applicants. However, sites may also set a policy about requiring that an applicant obtain a Social Security number.

Housing advocacy groups are promoting a federal initiative that would require HUD to fulfill its obligations to owners arising out of housing assistance payment (HAP) contracts in fiscal year 2008 (FY08) on time and in full, says Denise Muha, executive director of the National Leased Housing Association (NLHA).

If you, as a site owner or manager, screen applicants yourself, one of the most important steps you take is to contact applicants' current and prior rental references.

References' evaluations are valuable in helping you decide whether to rent a tax credit unit to an applicant. But rental references are often reluctant to fill out forms, so you might find it easier to call them to get the information you need. To get an informative reference over the telephone, you need to ask the right questions and keep a record of the answers.

Groundwork for the establishment of a national affordable housing trust fund was laid last fall, when the House of Representatives passed legislation (H.R. 2895) that House Financial Services Committee Chairman, Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., had introduced, and when Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., introduced a companion bill in the Senate (S.2523), which was almost identical to the House bill. The Senate bill has already been referred to the Senate Banking Committee, which is chaired by Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn.

As a site owner or manager, you are required by federal Fair Housing law to do what is reasonable in granting requests for accommodations or modifications, so that a visually impaired applicant might consider residing at your site. Furthermore, you are under a legal obligation to ensure that a visually impaired resident has the same “full use and enjoyment” of the site as a resident who is not disabled. Each visually impaired applicant or resident will have different needs that you must address.