States are starting to close on deals using Tax Credit Assistance Program (TCAP) or exchange program funds, according to a panel of state housing agency leaders.
Fourteen deals with TCAP had closed in New York as of the end of October, according to Deborah VanAmerongen, commissioner of the New York State Division of Housing and Community Renewal.
In New Jersey, 16 projects have received conditional approval for TCAP, and two have closed. In Illinois, 26 projects have been approved for the new funding, with officials working to close on them soon, and in California about $325 million in TCAP has been preliminary awarded, but individual deals had yet to close in October.
Allocators from these states discussed their latest moves during a session at AHF Live: The Affordable Housing Developers’ Summit in Chicago, with moderators Bob Moss, senior vice president and director of origination at Boston Capital, and Jeanne Peterson, a principal at the Reznick Group.
VanAmerongen raised concerns that the longer the short-term fixes are in the mix, the long-term problems in the market will not be addressed.
She said it would be easier for lawmakers to just extend the temporary exchange program rather than work on permanent solutions. VanAmerongen also voiced worries that the temporary solutions are changing the basic model of the overall tax credit program that has worked well over the years.
The allocators noted that the readiness of the projects to proceed has been an important consideration for receiving the stimulus funds. Although readiness was not a scoring factor in California, it is meant to be the last piece of funding to come in, according to William Pavao, executive director of the California Tax Credit Allocation Committee.
