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The Treasury Department’s Office of Inspector General recently audited the Delaware State Housing Authority (DSHA) as part of its ongoing oversight of the LIHTC exchange program authorized by Section 1602 of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. The Recovery Act was signed into law to provide relief to the ongoing economic crisis. Part of that relief, provided in Section 1602 of the Recovery Act, consisted of grants awarded to states for low-income housing projects in lieu of low-income housing credit allocations.
On July 11, a coalition of 15 Republicans and 15 Democrats introduced H.R. 5082. The bill is called the National Disaster Tax Relief Act of 2014. This bill would affect areas declared major disaster areas in 2012, 2013, and 2014. The bill was sent to the House Ways and Means Committee for discussion.
Its assistance measures include increasing the Low-Income Housing Credit allocation for states damaged by a natural disaster, based on the population of qualified disaster areas within the state.
On June 25, HUD published a final rule implementing changes to the Section 8 tenant-based and project-based voucher programs made by the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008 (HERA). HERA made several changes to the U.S. Housing Act of 1937 that affect programs administered by HUD’s Office of Public and Indian Housing. This affects owners since tax credit sites apply the rules of the Section 8 project-based program for purposes of rent determination and because voucher residents make up many tax credit sites’ resident bases.
The Ohio Housing Finance Agency (OHFA) recently released the Health Impact Assessment (HIA), a report that examines the health implications of a proposed government policy to align affordable housing inspections. OHFA was awarded a grant from the Health Impact Project, a collaboration of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and The Pew Charitable Trusts, to conduct the assessment. The HIA is intended to inform the revision of compliance rules and policies for housing inspections, both within OHFA’s state-level compliance standards and at the federal level.
On June 17, the ACTION Campaign submitted a letter to House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dave Camp asking that he permanently extend minimum 9 and 4 percent Housing Credit rates as part of his current tax extenders effort. ACTION (A Call To Invest in Our Neighborhoods) is a national, grassroots campaign led by a broad, cross-industry coalition of over 650 national, state, and local organizations.
On June 24, the Senate Budget Committee approved HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan’s nomination to be director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) by a vote of 15-6. The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee approved the nomination on June 25 by a vote of 9-1.
On May 22, Reps. Pat Tiberi, R-Ohio, and Richard Neal, D-Mass., introduced H.R. 4717, a bill that would establish a permanent floor for both the 9 percent and 4 percent Low-Income Housing Tax Credits. The bill would create a fixed 9 percent rate for new rental construction property and a fixed 4 percent rate for existing property. The bill has been referred to the House Committee on Ways and Means and includes 24 co-sponsors.
The Louisiana Joint Legislative Committee on the Budget recently approved a compliance fee increase that will go into effect beginning with the next funding round. The Louisiana Housing Corporation (LHC) will increase its compliance fee from $5 to $33 per unit for sites that receive new LIHTC funding.
Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., recently introduced the Renters Tax Credit Act of 2014 (H.R. 4479), which would provide a tax credit to apartment owners and lenders that subsidize the cost of lower rents for low-income households. The renter’s credit combines the concepts of the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit and project-based rental assistance and would cover the difference between the fair market rent of a unit and 30 percent of the qualified renter’s income.
Although the low-income housing tax credit program started less than 30 years ago, many sites are now operating after their initial 15-year compliance period—that is, in the “extended use period,” which preserves rental affordability for at least an additional 15 years as required by federal regulations.
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