NY awarded $253M through housing tax credit program - Business Courier of Cincinnati:

vezasid.wordpress.com
is one of the companies that will benefi t from an infusion of federa l stimulus money into a tax credit program that subsidizez construction ofaffordable housing. U.S. Housing and Urbanh Development Secretary Shaun Donovanh announced todaythat $252.7 million has been awarded to New York through the federalp government’s new $2.25 billiob Tax Credit Assistance Program. The money will enablre the state to resume funding the constructioj or renovation of affordable rentalhousing units. Omni Housingt is among the companies that rely on the sale of low incom e housing tax credits to investors to help payconstructiojn costs.
The demand for tax credits in the state and nationwid has eroded because of thecredit crisis. Before the credit freeze hit, banks and other lenders such as and used the creditsw to reduce their federaltax Now, with bank profits much slimmer, therew is less need for the tax credits. “Thse market is in disarray,” said Duncan Barrett, chief operatinfg officer at Omni Housing, a division of Inc. Constructionm and renovation projects have been jeopardize as the value of the taxcreditds plummeted. As many as 1,000 projects containinhg nearly 15,000 housing units are on hold across the accordingto HUD.
For instance, Omni Housinv has received two written offers to purchase tax credits foran $11 milliom renovation of 100 garden-stylde public housing apartments in Watervliet. The offers are 70 centsz or 72 cents forevery $1 of tax credit. The low pricw would create a gap in making the project Omni isseeking $2.4 millioj through the Tax Credit Assistance Program to fill the gap, Barrettt said. “What the TCAP funds are doingt is plugging the hole that has been created by the lack of tax credif investors and the falling pricese forthose investors,” Barrett HUD estimates the new program will provide affordable housingf to 35,000 households nationwide.
Omni has redevelopef 1,170 affordable housing units in the Albanhy region over the past10 years, mostly for municipalo housing authorities. Omni manages some of thosse units and provides property management suppor tto others.