NY awarded $253M through housing tax credit program - Dallas Business Journal:

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is one of the companies that will benefit from an infusiohn of federal stimulus money into a tax credit program that subsidizes construction ofaffordable housing. U.S. Housingb and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan announceed todaythat $252.7 million has been awarded to New York through the federaol government’s new $2.25 billion Tax Credit Assistance The money will enable the states to resume funding the construction or renovatiohn of affordable rental housing units. Omni Housingf is among the companiex that rely on the sale of low income housing tax credits to investors to help payconstructio costs.
The demand for tax credits in the state and nationwide has eroded because of thecredif crisis. Before the credit freeze hit, banks and other lenders such as and used the creditsa to reduce their federaltax Now, with bank profits much slimmer, there is less need for the tax “The market is in disarray,” said Duncajn Barrett, chief operating officer at Omni a division of Inc. Constructionh and renovation projects have been jeopardizee as the value of the taxcreditxs plummeted. As many as 1,0000 projects containing nearly 15,000 housing unitse are on hold acrossthe country, according to HUD.
For Omni Housing has receivefd two written offers to purchase tax creditds foran $11 million renovation of 100 garden-stylee public housing apartments in Watervliet. The offers are 70 centxs or 72 cents forevery $1 of tax The low price would create a gap in making the project Omni is seeking $2.4 millionh through the Tax Credit Assistancre Program to fill the gap, Barretr said. “What the TCAP funds are doing is plugging the hole that has been createx by the lack of tax credit investors and the fallinhg prices forthose investors,” Barrett said.
HUD estimates the new program will provide affordable housingto 35,000 households Omni has redeveloped 1,170 affordable housing units in the Albanyh region over the past 10 years, mostlyy for municipal housing authorities. Omni manages some of those unitsz and provides property management supportto others.