NCSHA Recognizes Stand-Out Affordable Housing Programs and Initiatives

This fall, the National Council of State Housing Agencies (NCSHA) recognized 17 programs offered by state housing finance agencies across the nation that creatively developed tools to tackle their communities’ affordable housing challenges.

From launching technical assistance programs for land banks to developing community partnership divisions to elevate capacity building, the 17 lauded housing finance agencies leveraged innovation to meet their agencies’ missions.

“This year’s award recipients epitomize the ingenuity and effectiveness state housing finance agencies are bringing every day to reduce housing costs, spur new housing supply and deliver solutions to the most vulnerable people and places,” NCSHA Executive Director Stockton Williams stated in a press release that announced the 17 winners in October.

NCSHA established the awards in 1984 and currently recognizes initiatives in seven categories: communications, homeownership, legislative advocacy, management innovation, rental housing, special achievement, and special needs housing.

This year’s awardees include:

Communications: Special Event Marketing
In the communications category, the Iowa Finance Authority (IFA) was honored for evolving its annual HousingIowa Conference into an innovation hub with interactive events, such as an Innovation in Housing Pitch Competition, Homeowner Incubator Competition and an Iowa Thriving Communities Showcase. According to IFA’s award entry, the event created an “immersive experience for attendees and tangible benefits for Iowans.”

“Gone are the days of mere conference spectatorship; we actively engaged our stakeholders, inviting them to participate in various pitch events to transform ideas into reality,” the entry read.

The award entry stated that the event facilitated the allocation of millions of dollars to housing initiatives. The Iowa Thriving Communities Showcase highlighted eleven Iowa communities that achieved the Iowa Thriving Community Designation. The designation comes with scoring points for the 2024 Federal Housing Tax Credit and/or Workforce Housing Tax Credit.

The conference’s Innovation in Housing Pitch Competition featured finalists from a group of developers who submitted creative proposals for housing projects serving special targeted populations or that used innovative construction or financing. The winner, a housing and community food hall development, secured $10 million in housing tax credits to build the project.

Home Ownership: Home Improvement and Rehabilitation
The Illinois Housing Development Authority (IHDA) was lauded for its Illinois Land Bank Technical Assistance program (LBTA). The LBTA provides “targeted support, advice and training” to elements of local government interested in or currently working to form a land bank to address home improvement and community revitalization, according to the IHDA awards entry.

Land banks acquire distressed properties before they deteriorate and connect them with owners who will maintain them. Land banks also facilitate the disposition of acquired properties through sales, transfers or redevelopment agreements.

The LBTA operates an independent grant program and provides support for the creation of land banks in Illinois. In 2023, IHDA’s investment in land banks through the new LBTA led to the acquisition and rehabilitation of more than 100 abandoned houses across the state.

Management Innovation: Internal Operations
The Colorado Housing and Finance Authority (CHFA) won in the management innovation category for internal operations for its Community Partnerships. The Community Partnership team engages with communities to build their capacity and inform their investment strategy after learning about their unique needs.

The CHFA hired five Community Relation Managers (CRMs) throughout the state of Colorado to develop partnerships. The CRMs are tasked with identifying local needs and opportunities in an effort to expand CFHA’s network of local partners. In 2023, CFHA invested $6.9 million in 490 nonprofits or community organizations through the Community Partnerships program.

Management Innovation: Technology
The Idaho Housing and Finance Association was honored for incorporating innovative artificial intelligence (AI) technologies into its workflow. The AI technologies include “language models, intelligent document processing and autonomous workflow assistants,” the award entry read.

“Our AI solutions have transformed the way we work, offering a range of game-changing features,” the entry continued. “For example, The AI can upload, read and interact with documents and websites. This empowers our employees to quickly access information and streamline workflows.”

The AI technology includes an AI virtual customer service agent and an autonomous AI Underwriter that has helped to transform the agency’s loan application process.

Rental Housing: Encouraging New Construction
The New York City Housing Development Corporation captured an award for its program addressing the housing crisis through hotel-to-residential conversions. The program, launched after the COVID-19 pandemic left hotels struggling with low occupancy rates, offers incentives to hotel operators to convert their hotels to housing.

In 2021, the New York legislature passed the Housing Our Neighbors with Dignity Act (HONDA), “which created a new program to provide nonprofits with a source of financing to purchase, acquire and convert distressed hotels into permanently affordable or supportive housing,” the award entry read.

The effort led to leveraging over $312 million in low-interest loans, subsidies, grants and tax incentives to create 809 affordable homes, including 497 formerly homeless units and 246 permanently affordable units.

Rental Housing: Multifamily Management
The Kentucky Housing Corporation (KHC) was honored in the multifamily management category for its NSPECT This House initiative. In an effort to assist partners, landlords and inspectors in learning the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD’s) new inspection standards and protocols launched in October 2024, KHC developed NSPECT This House, which is a model one-bedroom unit outfitted with 60 compliance violations.  

KHC staff converted a small office space previously used for storage into the model one-bedroom apartment featuring the violations. Partners, landlords and inspectors can tour the model to see violations first-hand. The team at KHC also developed the NSPIRE crash course, which is a three-part YouTube series disclosing what inspectors should look for when inspecting.

Rental Housing: Preservation and Rehabilitation
Oregon Housing and Community Services (OHCS) captured the Rental Housing: Preservation and Rehabilitation award for its Preservation Framework and Dashboard. In 2023, the OHCS created the Preservation Framework to direct its work around affordable housing. The framework sets out five objectives, which include: articulating a clear rationale for sustained investment in preservation and forecasting needs over the next ten years, defining the kinds of preservation the strategy would cover, establishing high-level policy goals for preservation, clarifying how OHCS would prioritize resources and helping to inform partners’ planning around asset management and preservation.

The framework also defined four preservation priorities: properties with long-term project-based federal rental assistance that were at risk, affordable properties at risk of converting to market rate as restrictions expired, affordable rent-restricted properties at risk of loss due to physical or financing challenges and manufactured home parks owned or being acquired by a residents’ cooperative or nonprofit.

The Preservation Dashboard makes preservation data easily accessible to housing partners.

Special Needs Housing: Combatting Homelessness
Oregon Housing and Community Services (OHCS) was feted for its Special Needs Housing: Combatting Homelessness program. Responding to a significant increase in its unhoused population across the state that resulted in Gov. Tina Kotek declaring a state of emergency, OHCS worked with each of the state’s Continuum of Care (CoC) regions to establish Multi-Agency Coordination (MAC) groups to provide interagency management planning and coordination around homelessness in regions throughout the state.

After months of planning, the MAC groups developed plans to rehouse people and create new shelter beds in their communities. The state set goals of creating 600 shelter beds, rehousing 1,200 households and preventing homelessness for 8.750 people. Its efforts exceeded those goals in 2023 by creating 1,047 shelter beds, rehousing 1,426 households and preventing homelessness for 9,024 people.

Special Needs Housing: Housing for Persons with Special Needs
The Indiana Housing and Community Development Authority (IHCDA) was honored in the area of Special Needs Housing for its program Housing for Persons with Special Needs. The program focused on individuals with intellectual or developmental disabilities (IDD) or brain injuries. Since 2018, IHCDA has set aside a certain number of tax credits for developments that commit to serving individuals with IDD or brain injuries by providing affordable housing in an integrated setting. Since then, IHCDA has seen “consistent activity” in the development of supportive housing for individuals with IDD or brain injuries. IHCDA has seen 362 units established in 32 developments across 22 cities and towns.

To be eligible for the community integrations set aside, developments must reserve at least 20 percent of the total development for households in which at least one member is a person with IDD or a traumatic brain injury.

A full listing of this year’s recipients is available at www.ncsha.org/awards.