Rural Housing

Multifamily housing developers, community organizations, investors, and lenders interested in affordable rental housing in New England have a new resource available that provides a comprehensive overview of current opportunities. A special report entitled “A Variety of Approaches: New England State Agencies Differ in Needs, Priorities in Their Housing Credit Programs” reviews recent and current tax credit allocation activity, project trends, and state priorities in the New England states ““Connecticut, New Hampshire, Maine, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Vermont.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Rural Housing Service (RHS) recently published a proposed rule in the Federal Register to establish new regulations to implement its Rural Development Voucher Program (RDVP) as a permanent program.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has announced that Tammye Treviño, who most recently served as Administrator of the Rural Housing Service (RHS), has left the agency to become Regional Director of the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD’s) Region VI, based in Texas.

A recent report conducted by Rapoza Associates entitled “The Low-Income Housing Tax Credit: Overcoming Barriers to Affordable Housing in Rural America” examines the importance of the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) in the developing and preserving affordable housing in rural communities.

On July 31, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Rural Development (RD) sent letters notifying owners with Section 521 Rental Assistance (RA) contracts that expire in September that RA contracts cannot be renewed until fiscal year (FY) 2014 begins in October due in part to a shortage of FY 2013 RA funds.

NH&RA was please to welcome over 100 participants at the 2013 Summer Institute. All conference materials, Power Point presentations, relevant articles, reports, memos, etc. are available for download.

The Senate Appropriations Committee recently approved the FY 2014 spending allocations, also known as 302(b)s, for its 12 subcommittees , including the Transportation-HUD (T-HUD) and Agriculture-Rural Development Subcommittees. The Senate Budget Committee had set the overall FY 2014 discretionary spending cap, known as the 302(a), at $1.058 trillion, which is equal to the President’s FY 2014 budget request.

The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) recently sent a letter to agency and department heads informing them that FY 2015 budget submissions should include reductions that bring the overall submission to a level that is 10 percent below the net discretionary FY 2015 total provided for the agency in the FY 2014 budget.

HUD recently released Notice H 2013-16 to notify owners of properties with a Section 515 Rural Rental Housing loan from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) and a Section 515/8 New Construction Housing Assistance Payments (515/8 HAP) contract from HUD that HUD is no longer requiring the submission of annual financial statements (AFS) for these properties.

The National Affordable Housing Management Association (NAHMA) recently released its Affordable 100 which ranks the largest affordable multifamily property management companies, ranked by affordable unit counts. In an effort to accurately determine the portfolio of affordable units receiving federal subsidy in the United States, NAHMA publishes this annual listing of affordable units containing at least one of the following federal subsidies: HUD Project-based Assistance, Section 42 LIHTC, HOME funds, USDA Section 515, or Bonds. 

The House of Representatives Appropriations Committee recently approved FY 2014 spending caps, known as 302(b) allocations, for its 12 individual appropriations Subcommittees, including the Transportation-HUD (T-HUD) and Agriculture-Rural Development Subcommittees.

The NH&RA Advocacy Archive was created to provide a one-stop-shop for NH&RA members who are interested in advocating to elected officials to support key affordable housing and tax credit programs. We have collected a variety of documents, reports, templates and best practices that should be helpful in this effort. Please note this is a work in progress–check back often as we add additional resources.