The Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs (TDHCA) has opened the public comment period for its proposed 2013 HOME, Housing Tax Credit and Housing Trust Fund Regional Allocation Formula (RAF) Methodology. The RAF is updated annually to provide statistical information on affordable housing needs and available resources to plan HOME, Housing Tax Credit, and Housing Trust Fund allocations.
This year’s RAF underwent major changes in response to public comments on the 2012 draft RAF. The proposed 2013 RAF introduces large changes to housing needs and availability measurements. It maintains its measurements for cost burden and overcrowded units, but will remove “units with incomplete kitchen and plumbing” as a measurement and will change its poverty measurement to include up to 200% of poverty. TDHCA also proposes for housing availability to be measured by the number of vacancies in each region rather than using the number of past federal and state housing program awards per region to determine availability. Other proposed changes include:
- Using county-level data rather than by place of funds distribution;
- Placing equal weight to the percentages of housing need and housing availability rather than weighting based on the percentage of the population;
- Redistributing funding to provide more funding for areas of high housing need and less funding for areas with high housing availability.
Click here to read the Regional Allocation Formula Methodology Draft.
The public comment period for the RAF will be open through Monday, October 29, 2012 at 5:00pm. A public hearing will be held on October 24, 2012 at 1:00pm at the Stephen F. Austin State Office Building in Austin, TX. Written comments on the RAF Methodology should be submitted to Elizabeth Yevich, TDHCA, PO Box 13941, Austin, TX 78711-3941, or fax at (512) 475-0070 or email to Elizabeth.yevich@tdhca.state.tx.us.
TDHCA will also continue to accept public comments on the following multifamily plans and rules through October 22, 2012.
- 2013 State of Texas Consolidated One Year Action Plan
- 2013 Qualified Allocation Plan
- 2013 Multifamily Housing Revenue Bond Rules
- 2013 Uniform Multifamily Rules
- 2013 Real Estate Analysis Rules (included in the Uniform Multifamily Rules, Subchapter D, §§10.301 – 10.307, titled “Underwriting and Loan Policy”)
The Agency will be hosting a roundtable discussion on a proposed rule found in the draft Uniform Multifamily Rules on the right of first refusal requirements for housing tax credit properties. This rule provides guidance for existing properties with a Land Use Restriction Agreement (LURA) that requires an opportunity for qualified non-profits to purchase the property. The roundtable will be held on October 17, 2012 from 10:00am- 12:00pm at the Capitol building in meeting room E1.024. The “Right of First Refusal” rule can be found in the Uniform Multifamily Rules, Subchapter E, §10.407.
To RSVP, contact Cari Garcia at (512) 475-0577 or cari.garcia@tdhca.state.tx.us.
For questions or comments, please contact the Housing Resource Center at 512-475-3976 or info@tdhca.state.tx.us.
