News

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.

Representative Ilhan Omar (D-MN) introduced the Homes for All Act of 2019, which will dramatically expand the public housing stock in the U.S. and guarantee housing as a human right. The bill will authorize construction of 12 million new public housing and private, permanently affordable rental units.

House Committee on Financial Services Chairwoman Maxine Waters (D-CA) and Senator Kamala Harris (D-CA) introduced the Housing is Infrastructure Act of 2019 (H.R. 5187/S. 2951). The bills contain the following investments in housing:

The U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Community Development Financial Institutions Fund (CDFI Fund) released a Summary Report and data collected on New Markets Tax Credit (NMTC) investments across the nation through fiscal year (FY) 2017. Nearly 70 percent of NMTC investments made through 2017 have been concentrated in single/mixed-use real estate, health care and social assistance, manufacturing, and educational services.

On November 19, the House of Representatives voted 231-192 on H.R. 3055 to approve a continuing resolution (CR) that would fund the federal government through December 20. The new CR maintains an important adjustment for the Section 202 Housing for the Elderly program that will prevent renewal delays for Project Rental Assistance Contracts set to […]

Kingsley Associates released an executive summary of findings from confidential interviews with 31 large institutional investors and investment advisors on the topic of affordable housing investment. They found three main reasons these investors chose not to invest in affordable housing:

The Federal Government’s “onerous rules and regulations.”
The miseducation (or under-education) of the investment community.
Investing in affordable housing solely to meet a mandate.

The National Council of State Housing Agencies (NCSHA) and the Economic Innovation Group (EIG) published three case studies of developments that incorporate Opportunity Zone investment to create new affordable homes and support community revitalization efforts in Ohio, Maryland and Florida. These are the first in a new series of Opportunity Zone Development Profiles that detail project financing, community socioeconomic data and projected economic impact. The profiles demonstrate how Opportunity Zone investments are being utilized to develop affordable homes for very-low- to moderate-income households, and how that investment is furthering community revitalization efforts and enhancing positive community impact.