The California Housing Finance Agency (CalHFA) announced the Conduit Issuer Program, a new program that helps affordable housing developers access tax-exempt and taxable bond funds to aid in the preservation and development of affordable housing projects throughout California.
The new CalHFA Conduit Issuer Program is competively priced compared with other statewide conduit programs. It is available to for-profit and non-profit developers and will provide simplified, efficient processes and compliance monitoring. Non-profit developers will receive additional discounts of the already competitive issuance fees for loans totaling $20 million or more.
According to NixonPeabody, occupancy restrictions will follow the federal LIHTC 20/50, 40/60 standard, provided that under the 40/60 option, at least 10% of the units must be at 50% or less of AMI. CalHFA’s description does not specify the rent restrictions under the required Regulatory Agreement, but implies that they also will follow the LIHTC standards.
In addition to the new Conduit Issuer Program, CalHFA’s multifamily finance programs include the Preservation Loan Program, which uses HUD/FHA Risk Sharing for credit enhancement, and the Multifamily Loan Prepayment Program, which uses new CalHFA bond issues to repay outstanding CalHFA loans subject to meeting CalHFA’s assessment of “public purpose considerations.”
