“This legislative session, Colorado has a great opportunity to strengthen resources for affordable housing. Colorado State Representative Crisanta Duran (Democrat-District 5) and State Senator Jessie Ulilbarri (Democrat-District 21) have introduced HB-1017 which proposes to renew Colorado’s State Low Income Housing Tax Credit program.
Colorado previously had a State Housing Credit in 2001 and 2002. It was very successful in creating affordable housing and leveraging investment in Colorado. The State Housing Credit helped produce approximately 800 affordable rental units, and raised more than $20 million in private sector equity for the development of affordable rental housing. The equity contributions provided by the private sector helped leverage additional federal, nonprofit, and private sector resources by $4 to $1.
If constructed today, CHFA estimates the development of these same 800 units would generate over $213 million in direct and indirect economic benefit to Colorado.
Modeled after the successful federal Low Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC), the state program would authorize CHFA to allocate $5 million in four year housing tax credits to for profit and nonprofit developers of affordable rental housing in 2015 and 2016. In exchange for the credit, developers would be required to restrict rents to be affordable to households earning 60% Area Median Income or less for a 30 to 40 year period – consistent with the requirements of the federal LIHTC program.
The State Low Income Housing Tax Credit would further CHFA’s ability to spread our federal LIHTC resources beyond what we are able to do today. For example, in 2013 CHFA received 55 federal LIHTC requests, seeking a combined total of $49.8 million in credit. Approximately $12 million in federal LIHTC was available for allocation in 2013, meaning that demand outpaced supply by 4 to 1. Being able to support the creation of new affordable housing is critical at a time when 51% of Colorado renters are cost burdened, paying over 30% of the monthly income towards housing, and low vacancy rates for market rate rental housing continue to push rents higher.”
