Affordable Housing News
Vol. 22 Issue 11
No More Affordable Senior Housing Cuts(LeadingAge) – On Tuesday, the House of Representatives Appropriations Committee began work on the fiscal year 2016 THUD funding bill, which severely underfunds affordable senior housing.
This bill would devastate programs critical to older Americans and those who provide them with affordable, quality housing.
Please email your representative TODAY and tell them to oppose the THUD appropriations bill unless funding for affordable senior housing is significantly increased.
Here’s what’s at stake:
• The bill does not fund any new affordable senior housing programs, such as the Section 202 Capital Advance Grant Program
• The Section 202 Project Rental Assistance Contract renewals, a vital rental assistance support program, are underfunded by $44 million
• All funding for the National Housing Trust Fund is eliminated
• Funds already dedicated to the housing with services demonstration will be recaptured for other purposes
Affordable senior housing programs have faced enormous cuts in recent years. They cannot sustain further reductions in funding.
We need your help to tell the House of Representatives that older Americans deserve affordable housing. Please send your message TODAY.
LeadingAge Forms Cabinet and Task Force to Address Senior Housing Issues(Niles Godes, LeadingAge) - LeadingAge recently created 2 new groups to address public policy issues surround senior housing that are crucial to LeadingAge members and the elderly population they serve. These two groups are:
• The LeadingAge Cabinet on the Future of Affordable Senior Housing.
• The LeadingAge Task Force on the Low Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC).
Cabinet on the Future of Affordable Senior Housing
The LeadingAge Cabinet on the Future of Affordable Senior Housing will examine issues hindering the expansion of affordable senior housing, and will look for additional ways of funding affordable senior housing in the future.
“An aging population and dwindling federal support for affordable senior housing are combining to create a very real crisis in our country," said Cabinet Co-Chair Michelle Norris, president of National Church Residences. "I am pleased to be part of this LeadingAge effort to develop additional ways of helping America’s senior citizens have quality, affordable places to live.”
Co-Chair Roger Myers, president and CEO of Presbyterian Villages of Michigan, noted that “solving America’s senior housing crisis will take creative ideas, hard work, and cooperation at the federal, state, and local level." The Cabinet, Myers added, "will work to find the best of those ideas and encourage policy-makers to provide affordable housing for our nation’s elderly.”
Additional cabinet members include:
• Dennis Adams, Christopher Homes.
• Jim Pieffer, Presbyterian SeniorCare.
• Michael Marcus, The Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation.
• Nancy Eldridge, Cathedral Square.
• Patrick Sheridan, Volunteers of America.
• Robert Jenkens, National Cooperative Bank.
• Val Agestino, Mercy Housing.
• Walter Coffey, LeadingAge Georgia.
The cabinet’s work will be an open and inclusive process, soliciting ideas from all LeadingAge members and from others committed to the future of affordable senior housing.
Task Force on the Low Income Housing Tax Credit
LeadingAge has also formed the Task Force on the Low Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC).
Congress has begun what is expected to be a multi-year process of reforming our nation’s tax laws. Many tax provisions, including LIHTC, could be considered soon.
The Senate Finance Committee formed “working groups” in an effort to build consensus on various tax issues, and Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch invited interested parties to submit comments to the appropriate working group by April 15.
The task force is chaired by Steve Proctor of Presbyterian Senior Living. Additional members include:
• Steve Protulis, the Elderly Housing Development and Operations Corporation.
• Dr. Laverne Joseph, the Retirement Housing Foundation.
• Lisa Henderson, LeadingAge Maine and New Hampshire.
• Toby Halliday, Stewards of Affordable Housing for the Future.
• Jasmine Borrego, TELACU Residential Management.
• Bill Jennings, Front Porch.
With the task force’s guidance, LeadingAge (along with Stewards of Affordable Housing for the Future) recently submitted comments addressing LIHTC to the U.S. Senate Finance Committee.
LeadingAge and SAHF stressed the important role the credit plays in building affordable housing, the need to permanently lock in the 4% and 9% credits, and urged Congress to expand the resources available to the program.
More Information
If you would like more information about either the cabinet or the task force, please contact Niles Godes at 202-508-9437.
National Housing Trust Fund Rules Finalized (Colleen Bloom, LeadingAge) - The National Housing Trust Fund was created by Congress in 2008 for the purpose of funding the construction, preservation and operation of affordable housing, and was to be funded from profits from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
In December 2014, Congress enabled funds to begin to flow into the account. And in January 2015, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) issued an interim rule describing how funds would be made available to states and what work must be accomplished by the states before funds can be made available.
That rule was finalized in March 2015, and preliminary accumulations of funds may become available for use as soon as early 2016.
National Housing Trust Fund Background
The National Housing Trust Fund (HTF) was created by Congress under the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008 for the purpose of funding the construction, preservation and operation of affordable housing, and it was to be funded from profits from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) suspended the funding of the national HTF from its inception, until December 11, 2014 when the FHFA issued letters to the two agencies and announced that the suspension was immediately lifted.
With the flow of funding potentially soon to become available, HUD published a 46-page interim rule for the implementation of the National Housing Trust Fund (HTF) in the Jan. 30, 2015, Federal Register. This interim rule establishes the regulations that will govern the HTF.
It is HUD’s intention to open this interim rule for public comment to solicit comments once funding is available and the grantees gain experience administering the HTF program
On March 26, 2015, the FHFA issued a 3-page final rule setting forth requirements related to allocations by the Federal National Mortgage Association (Fannie Mae) and the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation (Freddie Mac) to the Housing Trust was published which prohibits Fannie and Freddie from passing on costs of associated with their contributions to the originators of loans they purchase.
They also finalized their earlier (Dec 16, 2014) interim rule without any changes.
Distribution of the National Housing Trust Fund
The money from the National Housing Trust Fund will be distributed to states based on a set of criteria that is related to unmet housing needs for extremely low and low income families, percentage of families with “worst case housing needs,” and the percentage of very low income families that pay more than half of their income for housing.
There is a guaranteed minimum of $3 million for each state.
Each state must designate the agency within that state that will administer and allocate the funds, and they must develop a companion consolidated allocation plan for administration of the funds.
A majority of the funds must be used to support housing for extremely low income families (less than 30% of the Area Median Income (AMI)), and the rest must serve families who are very low-income (less than 50% of the AMI).
At least 80% of the funds must be used for rental housing, and no more than 10% can be used for “sustainable homeownership” for first-time homebuyers.
The states have autonomy in what form they distribute the funds. The funds can be distributed as grants, equity, loans, advances, interest subsidies, deferred payment loans, among the many methods. Hard costs, certain soft costs, acquisition costs, and related financing costs, as well as certain operating costs are all eligible uses of the funds.
The program is similar in its structure to the HOME Investment Partnership Program. State administering agencies are now focused on developing their plans for how to deploy the funds in their state. HUD published a chart showing a comparison of the NHTF and HOME.
Note that we do not expect the first traunch of funds to be distributed until 2016, allowing a full year of income to accumulate in the fund.
Early estimates of the amount of funds that should be available to distribute the first year range from $110 million to $300 million.
HUD Water Wednesdays – To help HUD project officers and HUD grantees incorporate water efficiency into their programs and projects, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s WaterSense® program is co-hosting “Water Wednesdays,” a webinar series that will provide information about tools and resources that help public, low-income, and multi-family housing managers save water, energy and money.
For more information about the series, please click here.
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