The Low Income Housing Tax Credit Program (LIHTC) is a federal program that supports the production of affordable multifamily housing. Most of these tax credits are awarded through a competitive allocation process administered by the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs (TDHCA). Developers apply for credits for a specific proposed development, TDHCA scores the [...]
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Archive | April, 2010
Bo McCarver’s weekly news compilation 4/27/2010
April 28, 2010
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Tuesday Report, April 27, 2010 Special to the Texas Low Income Housing Information Service The federal tax credit program for new home buyers is catching flack from the free market forces: the real estate industry now claims home sales would have risen anyway and that government intervention was a waste of taxpayer money. In Galveston, [...]
Read moreTexas State Representative sentenced to prison in housing tax credit bribery case
April 27, 2010
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State Representative Terri Hodge (D-Dallas) was sentenced to a year in prison today by a Dallas Federal District judge on bribery changes stemming from the Dallas Low Income Housing Tax Credit corruption trial. According to the Dallas Morning News, Hodge failed to report $74,000 in income from 2001 to 2005. Of that amount, $32,541 was from [...]
Read moreReducing tornado deaths in mobile homes
April 26, 2010
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This weekend ten people were killed when tornadoes touched down in Mississippi. This section of the Washington Post coverage of the storm caught my eye: “A 78-year-old great-grandmother was among the 10 victims of a Mississippi tornado that devastated part of the state. <…> Coker lived just steps away from her sister and brother-in-law. Both [...]
Read moreTDHCA Sunset Recommendation #7: 3 in 1 on manufactured housing
April 23, 2010
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As previously discussed here at Texas Housers, TDHCA is currently undergoing Sunset Review. We are presenting recommendations for ways to improve TDHCA that have been endorsed by a broad range of stakeholders in TDHCA’s activities. Issue: The Manufactured Housing Division could better serve its mission to “improve the general welfare and safety of purchasers of [...]
Read moreTDHCA Sunset Recommendation #6: Give the Manufactured Housing Division Its own Sunset clause and review
April 21, 2010
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As previously discussed here at Texas Housers, TDHCA is currently undergoing Sunset Review. We are presenting recommendations for ways to improve TDHCA that have been endorsed by a broad range of stakeholders in TDHCA’s activities. Issue: The Manufactured Housing Division receives inadequate attention in the sunset process. Background: The Manufactured Housing Division of the Texas [...]
Read moreBo McCarver’s weekly news compilation 4/20/2010
April 20, 2010
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Tuesday Report, April 20, 2010 Special to the Texas Low Income Housing Information Service Charges have finally been filed against Goldman Sachs for creating bogus investment institutions that profited from the housing debacle. The Securities and Exchange Commission will face a tough legal defense in a complicated case as Goldman also mounts a campaign to [...]
Read moreTDHCA Sunset Recommendation #5: Clarify regional allocation formula statute
April 20, 2010
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As previously discussed here at Texas Housers, TDHCA is currently undergoing Sunset Review. We are presenting recommendations for ways to improve TDHCA that have been endorsed by a broad range of stakeholders in TDHCA’s activities. Issue: The Regional Allocation Formula (RAF), as it relates to the Housing Trust Fund (HTF), needs to be clarified to [...]
Read moreTDHCA Sunset Recommendation #4: Diversify board composition
April 19, 2010
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As previously discussed here at Texas Housers, TDHCA is currently undergoing Sunset Review. We are presenting recommendations for ways to improve TDHCA that have been endorsed by a broad range of stakeholders in TDHCA’s activities. Issue: The composition of the TDHCA Board needs to be modified to include representation of particular constituent groups. Background: Representation [...]
Read moreTDHCA Sunset Recommendation #3: Webcast all TDHCA board meetings
April 17, 2010
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As previously discussed here at Texas Housers, TDHCA is currently undergoing Sunset Review. We are presenting recommendations for ways to improve TDHCA that have been endorsed by a broad range of stakeholders in TDHCA’s activities. Issue: Information regarding the events at TDHCA Board meetings is not quickly available to those not physically present at the [...]
Read moreTDHCA Sunset Recommendation #2: Create a program category for Texans earning between 0 and 110% of SSI.
April 16, 2010
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As previously discussed here at Texas Housers, TDHCA is currently undergoing Sunset Review. We are presenting recommendations for ways to improve TDHCA that have been endorsed by a broad range of stakeholders in TDHCA’s activities. Issue: TDHCA’s activities fail to reach Texans living on fixed income programs Background: TDHCA presently tracks three categories of low [...]
Read moreTDHCA Sunset Recommendation #1: focus board on policy
April 15, 2010
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As previously discussed here at Texas Housers, TDHCA is currently undergoing Sunset Review. We are presenting recommendations for ways to improve TDHCA that have been endorsed by a broad range of stakeholders in TDHCA’s activities. Issue: The TDHCA Board is distracted from policy creation by its role acting as a court of appeals to staff [...]
Read moreCharting the future of the TX Department of Housing and Community Affairs
April 14, 2010
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Once every twelve years (or so) the Sunset Advisory Commission examines most state agencies. The Commission “questions the need for each agency, looks for potential duplication of other public services or programs, and considers new and innovative changes to improve each agency’s operations and activities.” The last time the Texas Department of Housing and Community [...]
Read moreBo McCarver’s weekly news compilation 4/13/2010
April 13, 2010
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Tuesday Report, April 13, 2010 Special to the Texas Low Income Housing Information Service The citizens of Farmers Branch will forfeit almost $4 million in legal fees that mounted as the municipality attempted to defend ordinances prohibiting renting housing to undocumented tenants. The city is also under fire for violations of the Open Records Act. [...]
Read moreBo McCarver’s weekly news compilation 4/6/2010
April 13, 2010
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Tuesday Report, April 6, 2010 Special to the Texas Low Income Housing Information Service Tight banking rules on refinancing homes is credited for saving Texas from the foreclosure debacle suffered by many other states. Under state law, lenders cannot refinance more than 80 percent of a property’s appraised value. San Antonio’s shakers and movers are [...]
Read moreHouston Chronicle profiles Texas Grow Homes
April 12, 2010
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Widespread destruction of low-income neighborhoods, toxic FEMA trailers, countless homes rotting, vulnerable populations such as the elderly left homeless or in permanent exile from their communities. These problems have, on occasion, won the media’s attention following recent natural disasters. Rarely has the media examined solutions to these problems. But this week, the Houston Chronicle did, [...]
Read moreFailing Waco property facing closure
April 9, 2010
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Back in 2008 we listed the eleven subsidized housing properties with the lowest physical inspection scores from HUD. One of those properties, Parkside Village of Waco, recently received another failing inspection stores and will likely be shut down by HUD. (While two other Waco properties appeared on a more recent list of two subsidized housing [...]
Read moreRecovery Act recipients should report on creation of “local jobs”
April 1, 2010
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The Recovery Act contains a requirement that information about job created or maintained by recovery act be reported on a quarterly basis. The OMB recently solicited comments on ways to “enhance the quality, utility, and clarity of the information” collected under the act. Today TxLIHIS filed the following comments: The Texas Low Income Housing Information [...]
Read moreBo McCarver’s weekly news compilation 3-30-2010
April 1, 2010
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Tuesday Report, March 30, 2010 The penalties of the over-priced, over-sold and over-mortgaged housing era of the Bush years continue to linger. Bank of America has finally begun to negotiate at-risk mortgages as the Obama Administration rolls out new incentives for other lenders to do the same. In San Antonio, we see a new scheme [...]
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