News

U.S. Senator Tim Scott (R-SC) was joined today by Senate Finance Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-IA), Senators Marco Rubio (R-FL), Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV), Todd Young (R-IN), Joni Ernst (R-IA), Bill Cassidy (R-LA), and Cory Gardner (R-CO) in the introduction the IMPACT Act, which would reinstate and expand reporting requirements to determine the impact of the more than 8,700 Opportunity Zones across the country.

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has issued a final regulation on the implementation of the the base erosion and anti-abuse (“BEAT”) tax, which was part of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act and was designed to prevent the reduction of tax liability by certain large corporate taxpayers through certain payments made to foreign related parties and certain tax credits.  The BEAT Tax impacts certain LIHTC, NMTC and Historic Credit investors that are either foreign owned or have significant foreign operations. It has the potential to erode an investor’s benefit from tax credits and losses over time.  The final regulations retain the basic approach and structure of the proposed regulations, with certain revisions.

Lei Ding and Peter Birke of the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia have published a report on Opportunity Zones, “How Are Cities Leveraging Opportunity Zones for Community Development? Philadelphia as a Case Study.”  Using Philadelphia as a case study, this study intends to reflect on the selection of Opportunity Zones in major cities and to explore real estate market trends and residential mobility in designated zones in Philadelphia.

Due to the city’s ongoing budget crunch, newly-elected Nashville Mayor John Cooper has proposed to cut funding in half for the Barnes Fund for Affordable Housing.  The city faces an estimated budget shortfall of $41.5 million.  Mayor Cooper indicated the city would only award $5 million in Barnes Fund Grants this year.  The Barnes Fund […]

The California Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) is seeking feedback on the NOFA and program guidelines for the next round of its Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) program. Thanks to new, voter-approved housing bonds, the TOD program will be releasing a new NOFA in 2020. In preparation, HCD invites you to help shape Round 4 Guidelines by reviewing the Round 3 Guidelines from Fiscal Year 2013-2014 and providing feedback.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) published a Request for Information (RFI) seeking public comment on Federal, State, local, and Tribal laws, regulations, land use requirements, and administrative practices that artificially raise the costs of affordable housing development and contribute to shortages in America’s housing supply.

The California Housing Finance Agency (CalHFA) recently published a term-sheet for its new Mixed-Income Program (“MIP”), which provides competitive long-term subordinate financing for new construction multifamily housing projects restricting units (tax credit or CalHFA) between 30% and 120% of county Area Median Income (“AMI”).

The Six District Court of Appeals in California issued a ruling on November 26, 2019 requiring the City of San Jose to comply with a state law that requires cities to make surplus public land available for affordable housing.  The San Francisco Chronicle reports that, “The ruling, if it stands, will apply to 121 cities […]

At the most recent Democratic presidential debate in Georgia on November 20 several candidates addressed the lack of affordable housing. Kristen Welker, NBC News White House correspondent, directed this question to Tom Steyer “Millions of working Americans are finding that housing has become unaffordable, especially in metropolitan areas. It is particularly acute in your home state of California in places like Los Angeles and San Francisco. Why are you the best person to fix this problem?” Steyer called for the sustainable development of millions of units.

The White House Council on Eliminating Regulatory Barriers to Affordable Housing through HUD is seeking public comments on all aspects of developing a plan for reducing barriers to affordable housing development, and specifically on federal barriers to affordable housing development; state barriers to affordable housing development; local barriers to affordable housing development; basis for reducing […]

HUD released the 2020 operating cost adjustment factors (OCAFs) for project-based rental assistance with an anniversary date on or after February 11, 2020. The nationwide OCAF increased by 2.2 percent, ranging from 1.8 percent in Oklahoma to 3.4 percent in Hawaii and the Pacific Islands.  OCAFs are annual factors used to adjust Section 8 rents […]

Senator Bernie Sanders (D-VT) and Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) introduced the Green New Deal for Public Housing Act. The legislation would create seven grant programs to upgrade public housing units through decarbonization and mixed-use development and repeal the Faircloth Amendment, which prohibits new public housing units above the amount of units owned, operated or assisted by a PHA as of October 1, 1999.