Past Newsletters
Dear Subscriber,
Have you heard or read anything about an affordable housing tool called LIHTC or “lie-tech”, and wondered what on earth are they talking about? Well, you are not alone. LIHTC stands for Low Income Housing Tax Credit. And these credits help build affordable RENTAL housing (the rental part is important).
Now I bet you are wondering: how does a tax credit help create affordable housing? Great question!
This is how it works: investors provide money to developers to build affordable apartments. Those investors then receive credits that help them reduce their taxes! It’s mostly that simple. This LIHTC opportunity comes from Congress.
LIHTC funding is awarded as 9% credits or 4% credits. Those are the two options. Nine percent credits are very very valuable because they can finance up to 70% of a project! Because they are so valuable, they are also very competitive to receive, and each state has its own process. In North Carolina, the North Carolina Housing Finance Agency makes decisions about which projects will receive credits, and it’s typical that a County may only receive one award each year.
Maybe you have also heard that CHT received a 9% LIHTC award! We did — and we are excited! Those credits are for our upcoming Tanyard Branch Trace (Jay Street) project. This project will provide 48 affordable rental apartments in Chapel Hill. Since CHT does not build apartment buildings, we partnered with Taft Mills Group to be our co-developer. The project is expected to break ground in the winter of 2024.
CHT will not manage the property (the partners will hire a third party to help us with that), but CHT will be providing resident education and activities at the property. We are also working on a second project with Taft Mills Group on Legion Road that is working through Town of Chapel Hill approvals.
Having more affordable rental apartments will help CHT continue to help more people at different income levels. We also work with the tenants if they are interested in our homeownership program!
Check out these resources and our website for more information.
