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California architect Manny Gonzalez has witnessed a lot of changes over the last two decades in the design of affordable apartment communities for seniors, including those funded in part with low-income housing tax credits. As a result he can describe the changes as well as offer key suggestions to developers about important features for new senior communities today.

Low-income housing tax credits have been used to help finance one component of an innovative campus being developed in Detroit that is designed to meet the diverse housing and health care needs of low-income seniors, including frail individuals.

Many owners and managers of existing multifamily housing properties converting under the federal Rental Assistance Demonstration (RAD) program will need to become familiar with the compliance requirements for the federal low-income housing tax credit (LIHTC) program and often also those of other subsidy programs. Many RAD transactions will utilize the housing tax credit equity to raise equity to renovate and recapitalize these properties.

Construction has begun to transform a long vacant Pillsbury flour mill on the banks of the Mississippi River in Minneapolis into artist loft apartments, in a $150 million project financed in part by equity generated by federal and state tax credits.

It isn’t hard to imagine the next Mrs. Fields ramping up her new start-up cookie business in a low-rise industrial building being redeveloped in Boston’s Dorchester neighborhood.

The Delaware Community Investment Corporation has merged with Great Lakes Capital Fund in a transaction that will benefit both organizations, which provide debt and equity for affordable housing and community development transactions.

On November 14, the Financial Accounting Standards Board’s (FASB) Emerging Issues Task Force (EITF) reached consensus on amendments to Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) for accounting by investors in low-income housing tax credit (LIHTC) investments.

Through the creation of a different structuring model, Smith NMTC Associates, LLC (SNMTC) is making it possible for smaller projects to gain access to new markets tax credit (NMTC) financing by reducing initial and ongoing transaction costs. This “open capitalization” model can be used to fund qualified low-income community investments (QLICIs) as small as $500,000, rather than the usual industry minimum of $5 million.

The Wisconsin Housing and Economic Development Authority (WHEDA) has awarded low-income housing tax credits (LIHTC) to four developments selected in its first separate competitive funding round for “high impact” projects.

Developers and owners should take a proactive approach when it comes to property tax assessments for low-income housing tax credit (LIHTC) projects. Aggressive early and ongoing actions can prevent or minimize excessive assessments that can jeopardize the financial viability of a property, said panelists at the recent 2013 Annual Meeting of the National Council of Housing Market Analysts in Columbus, Ohio.

In the 15 months since the jarring federal appeals court decision in Historic Boardwalk Hall, which prompted a sharp reduction in the availability of investor equity for new real estate projects planning to use federal historic rehabilitation tax credits, some deals have moved forward and closed, according to sources. Some have had modified structures compared to typical pre-HBH transactions while others have been little changed, they say.

In Philadelphia, Miss., a city of nearly 7,500 with a median household income just under $30,000, local officials in June celebrated the opening of a 52,000-square-foot expansion of the local Neshoba County Hospital and Nursing Home that was financed with new markets tax credits. The expansion added a new emergency room, four-bed intensive care unit, 25 patient beds, radiology department, surgery suite, and pharmacy.