Tax Credit Advisor Article Archives

On the first Monday in February each year, the day on which what is generally referred to as “the President’s Budget” is released, Washington is sated with that giddiness you feel on the night of a Nats’ playoff game or an all-star holiday concert on the Mall. After all, the federal government is the biggest bank in America and there are a whole lot of folks eager to dip into its coffers.

Frequent readers of my column know that energy and water efficiency is one of my professional passions and after getting my electric and propane bills this month, I took some of the lessons we have learned from our Preservation Through Energy Efficiency (PTEE) Road Shows and embarked on some winter efficiency measures and operations and maintenance at home, too. There is nothing like the winter vortex to inspire action and I hope our readers will take some of the lessons and strategies we have highlighted in this month’s issue and put them into action.

A recent article in Multihousing Pro, entitled “The Incredible Shrinking Tradesman,” highlighted what many in the affordable housing development world already understand first hand: A generation of construction workers is leaving the workforce, and no one knows just how we will replace them.

Call it an exodus, call it a coincidence or call it a meme, but Americans are heading to the cities in the largest numbers since the Industrial Revolution changed a rural society into an urban society at the end of the 19th century. This latest great migration is from the center of the country towards all the edges. And it’s not surprising since the cities are beautiful. A month ago, I traveled from my home in beautiful Washington to Boston, Pittsburgh, Charleston and Atlanta and each of them was beautiful in its own quirky way.

During Bernie Husser’s two-year term as chair of the National Housing & Rehabilitation Association (NH&RA), which ends at the annual meeting in March, the organization has launched its Preservation Through Energy Efficiency initiative, fought for affordable housing in Congress and watched over the launch of a new federal program to recapitalize public housing. Husser has been in the business of affordable housing for more than two decades.

Even as tax reform looms on the horizon, the LIHTC is under a different mortal threat, one from an unlikely source – the Obama Administration and its judicially questionable but so-far politically effective blunderbuss known as disparate impact. If not struck down in a case just argued in the Supreme Court, then we might as well kiss goodbye states’ autonomy to set their own QAPs and to make binding awards, and say sayanora to the LIHTC production pipeline as we know it.

You might be thinking, “Why is NH&RA hosting a symposium on public housing revitalization now?” And maybe even, “Why should I care?” After all, most of our readers are LIHTC developers and owners of HUD-assisted properties, not housing authority staff. Furthermore the days when HOPE VI was funded annually at $600 million+ are way back in the rearview mirror. Yes, we may be forced to do more with less, but the need is great, the opportunities are numerous, new resources are available (I think you’ve heard me mention RAD before in this column) and perhaps most importantly, it is going to require the creative acumen of the private sector to solve the growing number of challenges housing authorities face.

There is common consensus now that the pursuit of energy efficiency is not only the right and civic thing to do, but can offer substantial savings to those paying the bills, be they owners or tenants. But to be most effective, there has to be some way of quantifying and calculating that efficiency.

In 2011, the CDFI published New Markets Tax Credit, Compliance and Monitoring Frequently Asked Questions, designed to help NMTC users understand the rules governing the program. It was updated this past December, and here we outline the most relevant revisions and changes.

When the term “historic Texas building” is mentioned, almost everyone conjures up the same image: the Alamo Mission in San Antonio, with its heroic evocations of Davy Crockett, Jim Bowie and Colonel William Travis. But Texas’ rich history has generated many lesser-known structures well worth preserving. And in 2013, the state legislature went a long way toward promoting their creative and functional re-use, through the passage of House Bill 500: the Texas Historic Rehabilitation Tax Credit.

An estimated 70 percent of multi-family, affordable housing (MFAH) in western Pennsylvania is more than 30 years old—and most of these units are wasting as much as half the energy they use.

On any given morning, the manager of any rental apartment or housing complex can expect to be barraged with a diverse array of questions, comments and complaints from tenants. They may range from no heat or cooling or hot water, to dripping faucets, noise, cooking odors or smoke from next-door, burned-out light bulbs in the hallway, lost keys, balky appliances, perceived rudeness from a staff member or someone else’s car in an assigned parking space. Each manager has his or her own roster of recurring “favorites”.