News

The Low Income Investment Fund (LIIF) said it has launched a $20 million COVID-19 LIHTC Developer Fee Bridge Initiative to support affordable housing developers facing liquidity challenges in the wake of the Coronavirus pandemic and ensuing recession. LIIF said in a press release that with a guarantee from the Community Investment Guarantee Pool (CIGP), the flexible capital would be available to fill gaps created when fees are stalled in phases of LIHTC development.

The $748 billion aid package is widely seen as the one that will advance; it contains $25 billion in rental assistance and extends the CDC eviction moratorium through January 31, 2020. Any one individual household is eligible to receive up to 18 months of assistance for arrearages and future rent payments. Importantly, landlords and owners may apply on behalf of tenants. Thank you to the many NH&RA members that contributed to the development of the NH&RA’s COVID-19 housing assistance advocacy letter, several of the asks in that letter are included in the legislative text!

Representatives Terri Sewell (D-AL) and Tom Reed (R-NY) introduced legislation to increase the NMTC allocation by $3.5 billion over four years, allow investors to carry back those credits for five years, exempt the NMTC from the 75 percent general business credit limitation, among other provisions.

Freddie Mac released a white paper Dec. 10 that found LIHTC supports 40.1 percent of the multifamily housing market in rural Persistent Poverty Counties (PPCs) – a rate that is more than three times greater than the national average and one and a half times greater than all rural areas.

Several news outlets are reporting that President-elect Joe Biden will nominate Rep. Marcia Fudge (D-OH) as HUD secretary. Fudge was first elected to federal office in 2008, is the member of the House Agriculture Committee, a member (and former chair) of the Congressional Black Caucus and served as mayor of Warrensville Heights, OH from 2000 to 2008.

The U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Community Development Financial Institutions Fund (CDFI Fund) announced that it received 208 applications under the calendar year (CY) 2020 round of the New Markets Tax Credit Program (NMTC Program).

A new report from the Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University (JCHS) presents results from a survey conducted between June 23 and July 17, 2020 to explore the experiences of service coordinators during the early months of COVID-19.

The National Housing Trust and Climate Central released an analysis evaluating the risk to affordable housing from flooding related to sea-level rise over the next 30 years. The report found, among other items, that the number of affordable rental apartments at risk from coastal flooding and sea-level rise is expected to more than triple during the next three decades.

President-elect Joe Biden named several members of his economic team this past week. As expected in previous reports, Biden nominated Janet Yellen to serve as Treasury secretary. He also named…

NH&RA joined with 39 other national organizations in a letter to Congressional appropriations organized by the Campaign for Housing and Community Development Funding (CHCDF), which urges Congress to adopt full and robust fiscal year (FY) 2021 appropriations for housing and community development programs as soon as possible.

NLIHC and i4J estimate the costs of emergency shelter, inpatient and emergency medical services, foster care and juvenile delinquency to people experiencing homelessness as a result of eviction. Depending on the number of households evicted, these public costs would range between $62 billion and $129 billion.

From 2009 to 2011, Bernstein was the chief economist and economic adviser to Vice President Joe Biden, executive director of the White House Task Force on the Middle Class and a member of President Obama’s economic team.