Jackson’s Chief of Staff Camille Pierce told the IG Jackson did not like several contractors, including Abt Associates, the Urban Institute (UI), Quadel Consulting, and TAG Associates. Read more
What trends are you seeing in your low-income housing tax credit program in your state? And how is your agency responding to any changes? Read more
Many HUD users and current and former staff think that contracting is being done for the wrong reasons, is overused, and is rarely cost-effective. Read more
There is no place where the low-income housing tax credit (LIHTC) is more important than on the hurricane-damaged Gulf Coast. Read more
The Sec. 42 low-income housing tax credit (LIHTC) program should be re-named the Affordable Housing for Economic Development program. Read more
Justifications for such no-bid contracts are numerous, but include urgency or the fact that a contractor is uniquely qualified. Read more
Responding to concerns about continuing housing problems in the hurricane-ravaged areas of the Gulf Coast, the Bush administration agreed to extend disaster housing assistance for an additional 18 months. Read more
It is challenging enough to own and manage multifamily assets in this era when rental increases are marginal and expenses such as real estate taxes, property insurance, utilities, payroll, and other variable costs continue to increase. Dealing with rent delinquencies only makes matters worse. Read more
When Newt Gingrich and his fellow Republicans took control of the House of Representatives in 1995, they threatened to abolish the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). Read more
Brockton, Mass.—This city of 95,000 people is known as the City of Champions because it’s the home of two boxing legends, Marvin Hagler and Rocky Marciano. Read more
Other Sec. 8(a) firms that have been very successful with HUD include the following: Read more
Contracting for housing program operations had overtaken IT by 2004. Contracts for the Office of Housing rose from $178 million in 2003 to $399 million in 2005, according to HUD. Read more
PITTSBURGH—An unusual loan guarantee, backed only by the promise of energy efficiency, helped the Allegheny County Housing Authority (ACHA) pay for some pricey new windows for several of its oldest public housing projects. Read more
One hears of tax credit deals so complex that their diagrams make pleasantly intricate wall hangings. But how many are unique enough to patent? There’s at least one—or so claims an application published in February. Read more
CAREY, OHIO—Talk about a deferred developer fee: The Woda Group put more than $400,000 of its own money into the rehabilitation of an old rural housing property here while the developer waited to close the last piece of the $3.8 million project’s permanent financing. Read more
Shortly after his election as governor of Texas in January 1995, George W. Read more
Freddie Mac has made adjustments to its early rate lock program to speed up deal cycle time and reduce the amount of money a developer has to put up in advance. Read more
It won’t come as news to anyone in affordable housing how dysfunctional the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has become under the Bush administration. Read more
Did program users and American taxpayers get their money’s worth from the $6.9 billion in contracts the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) awarded to 1,694 contractors in the last seven years? Read more
The East Side Organizing Project (ESOP) has a creative way of getting a predatory lender’s attention—dumping 2,000 small plastic sharks on the lawn of the lending company’s top executive. Read more
Structuring a construction loan can be a tricky proposition, with developers wading through a sea of legal language fraught with potential pitfalls and hidden costs. Read more
Bill Kargman says that he believes in protecting his residents. Kargman is the president of First Realty Management, the Boston-based owners and managers of High Point Village in Roslindale, Mass. Read more
When Cleveland lawyer Frank Chapman decided to go after a big HUD contract, his firm had little or no experience in the job the agency needed done: managing and marketing Federal Housing Administration-insured single-family properties. Read more
NEW YORK CITY—Peter Alizio has a stomachache. “I’m actually not feeling that well,” he said. “It might have something to do with my job.” Read more
The story of HUD Secretary Alphonso Jackson’s public statement describing his desire to avoid rewarding critics of President Bush by giving them contracts might have died quickly if Jackson had been allowed to react as he originally intended. Read more
Picture a 100-year-old brick school building in a small agricultural community along the Lewis and Clark trail. Read more
It’s not easy running a federal agency while at the same time trying to convince black Americans that the Republican Party, not the Democratic Party, has their best interest at heart. Read more
Abt requested $5.3 million, and mid-level staff at HUD recommended that Abt should receive that amount and be the only awardee. Read more
The world of federal contracting is murky and complex, with many rules and massive amounts of data. Read more
Developers putting together affordable housing projects are gravitating toward much larger developments now than they tackled in the early days of the low-income housing tax credit (LIHTC) program, data from the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) shows. Read more
“(Redacted) further stated that HRE subcontracted the work, and HRE did not perform any work,” the IG report said. Read more
Abt received $13.7 million in HUD contracts in 2000, but in 2006, the firm got only about $1.5 million, excluding grants, according to FedSpending.org. Read more
Rising development costs are making it more difficult for housing finance agencies (HFAs) to maintain production levels even with increased funding Read more
Citing concerns about the growing “shadow government” of contractors who cost American taxpayers $377 billion in 2005, the House of Representatives this winter passed H.R. 1362 to reform acquisition practices in the federal government. Read more
The federal program to help so-called Sec. 8(a) businesses can be a huge help to small minority-owned firms, and has been used wisely at the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and other agencies for many years. Read more