The Arizona Department of Housing (ADOH) has awarded $30.1 million in federal 9% low-income housing tax credits (LIHTC) to 16 affordable housing projects, including seven in rural communities. The record amount comes after a reengineered process of awarding tax credits and the implementation of a new state tax credit program, according to DOH.
“This new process reduced the burdensome regulatory framework for allocating these highly coveted tax credits and has led to increased developer interest in building affordable housing in Arizona,” said Tom Simplot, ADOH director. “The state tax credit program is fulfilling its goal to stimulate the construction of new affordable housing in our state.”
The department received a record 33 LIHTC applications, and the seven rural projects awarded are the most in state history. Two of those, one in Yavapai County and one in Gila County, are the first rural projects to ever be awarded state tax credit funding ($1 million each, which is in addition to the $30.1 million in LIHTCs). Combined with the nine metro project awards, the funding will lead to 1,142 additional housing units in Arizona. These numbers are a result of a complete rewrite of the state’s qualified allocation plan (QAP), which details all policies and procedures for LIHTC awards.
“We held tailored focus groups to solicit feedback from affordable housing stakeholders on reformulating our QAP and received more than 600 comments before drafting the final version signed by Gov. [Doug] Ducey,” said Simplot. “We streamlined the document length from more than 300 pages to less than 50, and, together with many other scoring and evaluation changes, we received applications from the affordable housing community like never before.”
Here are the complete lists of the 2022 9% LIHTC and the 2022 state tax credit award winners.
“By the end of 2022, we project all ADOH funding programs under our new QAP process will assist in the delivery of 8,574 new affordable housing units; a 330% increase over 2021,” added Simplot.
