The Virginia Housing Development Authority (VHDA) has released its draft 2012 Qualified Allocation Plan (QAP). Specific changes to the plan include:

  • Revise the percent of total credit authority that the majority of the state’s allocation pools will receive. The Local Housing Authority pool has increased to 15 percent, the Northern VA (Inner Washington MSA) pool has decreased to 18.02 percent, the Northwest/North Central Area pool has decreased to 9.2 percent, the Richmond MSA pool has decreased to 11.63 percent, the Tidewater MSA pool has decreased to 17 percent, and the Balance of the State pool has increased to 17 percent of the total credit authority;
  • Local Housing Authority sponsored developments will only be able to compete in the Local Housing Authority pool and the highest ranking development requesting $500,000 credits or less will be funded first;
  • Each development that does not initially rank high enough to receive a reservation of credits from pools one, two and four will compete in an At-Large pool consisting of the unreserved credits from the aforementioned pools;
  • VHDA proposes to add the “New Construction pool” for new construction or adaptive re-use projects in place of the Preservation pool, which has historically been non-competitive. Projects in District 8 localities are eligible to compete within this pool for a percentage of the next year’s allocation;
  • The Energy Star point category has been expanded to include a centralized commercial system with 95 percent efficiency or any solar thermal system that meets 60 percent of the development’s domestic hot water needs;
  • Points awarded for geothermal heat pumps has increased from 5 to 10.

Additionally, VHDA has proposed to adopt NCAHMA’s Model Content Standards for Market Studies for Rental Housing. NCAHMA’s Executive Director Thom Amdur recently participated at a market study forum hosted by VHDA on September 14 to answer questions about the Standard’s and organization. To learn more about NCAHMA, click here.

The public comment period for the proposed QAP will end on September 27, 2011 and VHDA will hold a public hearing to discuss the document the same day. Comments and questions may be submitted in writing to Jim Chandler, VHDA Director of Low-Income Housing Tax Credit Program, at jim.chandler@vhda.com. To read the full report, click here.