General News

A 2009 Affordable Housing Funding Application and supporting documents were recently made available by the Ohio Housing Finance Agency.

The Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFI) Fund recently announced the opening of its seventh competitive funding round for approximately $3.5 billion in New Markets Tax Credits in 2009.

The Louisiana Housing Finance Agency has scheduled a public hearing to receive comments on an amendment to its 2009 qualified allocation plan (QAP).

****NH&RA is pleased to report that the Ocean Reef Club has reduced our room rate by 10% for 2009 Affordable Housing Developers Conference and Annual Meeting. Our roomblock is already more than half-full–once our block is sold out we will not be able to get any more rooms at this great discount. Please don’t delay–reserve your room and register for the meeting today.****

The South Carolina State Housing Finance and Development Authority has incorporated the National Council of Affordable Housing Market Analysts Market into its 2009 QAP package.

CDFI Fund Director Director Donna Gambrell recently delivered a wide ranging address on the New Markets Tax Credit program at the December 2 meeting of the New Markets Tax Credit Coalition. Director Gambrell discussed two NMTC case-studies and provided a summary of the 2008 NMTC Allocation Round.

NH&RA has officially launched the new Council for Energy Friendly Affordable Housing (CEFAH). CEFAH is an independent council within NH&RA focused on developing policy solutions and practical, cost effective measures to reduce energy consumption in affordable, public and HUD-assisted housing.

President-elect Barack Obama has named some key appointments to White House staff and agency transition review teams with connections to housing.

The Arkansas Development Finance Authority has issued a letter that places priority on existing developments that previously received low-income housing tax credit allocations, but have not successfully closed or been placed-in-service because of the market conditions.

The Alabama Housing Finance Authority will accept applications for its 2009 HOME/Low-Income Housing Tax Credit programs the week of March 9-13.

The New York Division of Housing & Community Renewal (DHCR) in partnership with the New York State Association for Affordable Housing and other development community partners will be creating a new Upstate Equity Fund to encourage banks to invest in low-income housing tax credit projects within their communities.

The Kentucky Housing Corporation has scheduled a public hearing and developers’ forum for January 20 in Frankfort.