California

HUD released the updated Fair Market Rents (FMRs) for the FY 2019 Housing Choice Voucher Program and Moderate Rehabilitation Single Room Occupancy Program for ten areas based on new survey data. The new FMS are effective as of April 15, 2019 and based on surveys conducted by the area public housing agencies and reflect the […]

The California Tax Credit Allocation Committee (TCAC) released a memo describing how TCAC processes requests for consent to assign reservations of credit; consent to assign carryover allocations; changes to the applicant and general partners at the time the project ownership structure is formed; resyndications: regulatory agreement assignment, standstill agreement, subordination agreement; and other similar consents.

The California Tax Credit Allocation Committee (TCAC) released the agenda for its March 20th hearing. TCAC will consider 19 of the 2019 applications for reservation of 4 percent LIHTCs for Tax-Exempt Bond Financed Projects. For additional information, contact Vincent Brown, Interim Executive Director, at (916) 654-6340.

Tamara L. Osborne, an attorney with more than 20 years’ experience in affordable housing and community development law, has joined Ballard Spahr in the firm’s Los Angeles office. Ms. Osborne comes to Ballard Spahr from VLP Law Group, where she was a partner. Earlier in her career, she was a founding partner of Bocarsly Emden Cowan Esmail & Arndt, a real estate-focused boutique law firm.

The California Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) is implementing a three-phase action plan to improve its loan closing processes which will focus on: Increased standardization of loan documents; increased transparency and predictability around application scoring; improved customer service through predictable, assigned contacts to assist post-award; increased efficiency through electronic signatures; and ongoing feedback.

The California Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) released the final 2018 Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) Notice of Funding Availability (NOFA) FAQs. Applications must be received on Tuesday, Feb. 26 by 5 pm. If you have additional questions regarding the 2018 CDBG application, please submit questions to cdbgnofa@hcd.ca.gov through Monday, Feb. 25.

The California Housing Partnership annually assesses the historical loss and conversion risk of federally- and state-subsidized affordable rental properties. Its 2019 analysis found that between 1997 and 2018, California lost 15,044 affordable rental homes, one in four of which were financed with LIHTCs, and another 34,554 affordable rental homes are at risk of conversion.

The Statewide Codes and Standards Team will host a webinar on Feb. 25 from 8 to 10 am PT to discuss proposed restructuring of the multifamily standards in the 2022 Title 24, Part 6 code. Multifamily dwellings represent roughly half of all new residential construction in California, but the current energy efficiency building standards do not adequately address the different types of multifamily buildings, nor the variations between single-family homes and nonresidential buildings.

San Jose Mayor Sam Liccarddo announced that the city will devote nearly $100 million to 11 projects across the city over the next several years. The 11 projects are expected to provide 1,144 apartments to formerly homeless residents, low-income seniors and other vulnerable groups.

The northern California’s Metropolitan Transportation Commission has committed $10 million to launch the Bay Area Preservation Pilot (BAPP). Administered through Enterprise Community Loan Fund and the Low Income Investment Fund, BAPP will address a specific financing gap in the affordable housing market by offering 10-year term loans for the acquisition of affordable, market-rate rental properties.

The California Tax Credit Allocation Committee released a Development Section Resyndication Questionnaire Memo. This memo is applicable to projects with existing low income housing tax credit allocations that are requesting a new reservation of tax credits.  The questionnaire in the memo must be completed when submitting a resyndication application

The California Department of Housing and Community Development awarded more than $30 million from the National Housing Trust Fund program to help build new housing affordable for extremely low-income households.