Although the Fair Housing Act (FHA) prohibits discrimination based upon race, color, national origin, sex, familial status, disability, or religion, it does not include source of income. However, many state and local governments have added source of income to protected characteristics under their fair housing or civil rights laws. As of summer 2008, 13 states […]
California Law to Fine, Imprison Residents Who Defraud the PHA As of January 1, a new California law states that anyone who defrauds a housing program of a public housing authority of $400 or more is guilty of grand theft and is subject to imprisonment for up to one year (California Penal Code Section 487i). […]
Families affected by Hurricanes Katrina or Rita will be able to continue to receive rental assistance until August 31, under a new six-month transition program that was announced by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). Families current enrolled in the Disaster Housing Assistance Program (DHAP-Katrina/Rita) […]
As concerns continue to grow over the future financial support that will enable developers to pay for new construction and the rehabilitation of multi-family affordable housing sites, the House and Senate have reached a compromise on funding for LIHTC programs as part of the new economy recovery bill. The House bill that passed on January […]
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has issued its revised Form 8609, “Low-Income Housing Credit Allocation and Certification,” (Rev. 12/08), which owners of low-income multifamily housing can use to obtain a housing credit allocation for each building in their property. Following is a summary of some of the changes, which affect buildings placed in service after […]
If you are thinking of earning extra income for your tax credit site by renting out the community room for parties, think twice. If your community room is part of your site’s common area, you cannot charge households a fee to use the room—not even your market-rate households. If you do, you may cause the […]
Thirty-one members of the Affordable Housing Tax Credit Coalition (AHTCC) recently sent a letter to the U.S. Senate urging inclusion of several low-income housing tax credit provisions to the economic stimulus plan that was being debated at press time. In its January 30, 2009 letter, the AHTCC asked for $5 billion in dedicated funding that […]
Should the property manager of a tax credit housing site count a couple’s unborn child as a family member because the child will become part of the household in the next 12 months? Yes, however, you should only count the unborn child towards the income limit for income eligibility purposes, according to affordable housing consultant, […]
If you have a monitoring review scheduled with a Contract Administrator or a Housing Finance Agency (HFA), you also need to have your residents’ files in order to demonstrate compliance with the low-income housing tax credit program. If an owner does not provide the relevant information in a manner that can be reviewed in a […]
After 15 months of making improvements to the Miami-Dade Housing Agency (MDHA), the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Affairs (HUD) has returned control of the agency to Miami-Dade County. In a settlement agreement made in August 2008, HUD identified three priorities MDHA had to address before the agency would be returned. Over a four-month […]
