This week HB2089 will hit the House Floor. This bill will update the zoning and platting laws and is something the Oklahoma Home Builders Association is working to pass. Please take a moment to read this bill to determine if it impacts your business or mission. If so, please take action this week and contact your Representative.

Register now for the Annual Affordable Housing Advocacy Day at the Capitol on Monday, April 17, from 12:30 – 3:30 p.m. on the 4th Floor Rotunda.  Affordable Housing Day provides a key opportunity to meet with your state Senator and Representative directly to educate them on your efforts to provide safe affordable housing in communities across Oklahoma.

At the March 22 Board of Trustees Meeting, OHFA staff is recommending an award of approximately $1 million in additional 9% Tax Credits to those awarded in the 2nd Funding Period of 2022. Due to this being an unforeseeable event that could adversely impact those who applied for 9% Tax Credits in the First Funding Period of 2023, OHFA Staff will recommend that all 9% Tax Credit Applicants for the First Funding Period of 2023 be funded at the May 10, 2023 Board of Trustees Meeting, resulting in approximately $5.5 million in awards.

Approximately $1.2 million of the 2023 9% Tax Credit allocation was awarded at the November 16, 2022 Board of Trustees Meeting. This, in addition to the awards that will be recommended at the Board of Trustees Meetings in March and May, represents approximately $7.7 million of OHFA’s 2023 9% Tax Credit Allocation.

At this time, OHFA does not know what the 2023 total allocation of 9% credits will be but anticipates receiving a lower amount than what was received in 2022. Therefore, because so many credits have either already been awarded or will be recommended for an award before the application deadline for the 2nd Funding Period of 2023, we thought it would be pertinent to let the development community know that there will be fewer credits available for this funding period so they can plan accordingly.

If you have any questions, please contact Darrell Beavers, Housing Development Director at 405 419-8261 or darrell.beavers@ohfa.org.

Join Mental Health Association Oklahoma and The City of Oklahoma in their celebration of the Taylor Ridge Grand Reopening at 10 a.m. on Monday, February 27th!

BE AN INFORMED VOTER

Before you cast your vote, take the time to be informed about who will appear on your ballot. The OKC Chamber contacted each of the candidates and asked questions regarding their thoughts on issues of importance to the Chamber. It’s vital to understand how each candidate will approach the office and their stance on priorities that are important to OKC’s business community.

You can research more about what will appear on your ballot by view a sample ballot using the OK Voter Portal and viewing the list of elections for Oklahoma, Canadian, Cleveland and Pottawatomie counties.

VOTING INFORMATION

Early voting is 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Feb. 9-10 at your local county election board:

• Oklahoma County Election Board, 4201 N Lincoln Blvd., Oklahoma City, 405-713-1515
• Cleveland County Election Board, 615 E Robinson St., Ste. 200, Norman, 405-366-0210
• Canadian County Election Board, 200 S Bickford Ave., El Reno, 405-422-2422

Regular voting is 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Feb. 14 at your assigned polling location. Find your polling location on your voter ID card or by using the voter portal at oklahoma.gov/elections/ovp.

EMBARK bus and OKC Streetcar service will be free on Election Day to help get voters to the polls, and you can learn more about their routes by visiting their websites.

In addition, the White House statement says the administration is rallying state and local stakeholders and private housing actors to drive further action to protect renters in line with the blueprint. As part of this effort, the administration is launching the Resident-Centered Housing Challenge (Challenge), a call to action to housing providers and other stakeholders to strengthen practices and make their own independent commitments that improve the quality of life for renters. The Challenge, which will occur during the Spring of 2023, encourages state, local, tribal, and territorial governments to enhance existing policies and develop new ones that promote fairness and transparency in the rental market. Early commitments in support of the Challenge, which would affect more than 15 million rental units, include Wisconsin Housing and Economic Development Authority (WHEDA) and Pennsylvania Housing Finance Agency (PHFA) policies that cap annual rental increases to 5 percent per year for federally or state subsidized affordable housing. Beginning in 2023, WHEDA’s policy applies to existing residents in properties utilizing state or federal Low Income Housing Tax Credits. PHFA applied this policy to its portfolio of 450 properties with PHFA funding in 2022. The White House statement lists other commitments by Stewards of Affordable Housing for the Future, Realtor.com Rentals, the National Apartment Association, the National Association of Realtors, the Institute of Real Estate Management, and the National Multifamily Housing Council.

A statement NCSHA released in response to the White House’s announcement commends the Biden – Harris Administration for its continuing efforts to expand the supply of affordable housing and ensure low-income renters remain safely and affordably housed — objectives shared by all the nation’s state housing finance agencies. It also states that WHEDA’s and PHFA’s carefully tailored, state-specific policies were developed after detailed analysis, industry input, and public comment. It also says that broader federal efforts should follow a similar approach to balance the needs of all the stakeholders in the affordable rental housing system.

The administration says it welcomes additional commitments from interested stakeholders to take actions aligned with the blueprint principles and to join the Challenge for resident-centered housing practices. To join the Challenge, interested partners can complete this survey (RCHousingChallenge).

Source: National Fair Housing Alliance, “2022 Fair Housing Trends Report,” https://bit.ly/3uy5tmw

Note: Source of income is not a federally protected class but is protected under some state and local laws. Sex includes sexual orientation and gender identity. NFHA notes the high frequency of complaints based on disability may be due to the fact that these often arise from an overt refusal to provide a reasonable accommodation, compared to more covert forms of housing discrimination.

On November 28th, a bipartisan group of lawmakers led by Representatives Suzan DelBene (D-WA-01) and Brad Wenstrup (R-OH-02) sent a letter urging House leadership to include key provisions to expand and strengthen the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (Housing Credit) program from the bipartisan Affordable Housing Credit Improvement Act (AHCIA) ( H.R.2573 / S.1136) in any year-end legislative vehicle. The letter calls for the enactment of two key AHCIA provisions to preserve and produce more affordable rental housing: 1) reinstating the 12.5% increase to Housing Credit authority that expired at the end of 2021; and 2) lowering the bond financing threshold from 50% to 25%.   

Last week, the ACTION Campaign, a coalition co-chaired by Enterprise and the National Council of State Housing Agencies (NCHSA), also sent a letter, signed by over 2,500 businesses, nonprofits and public agencies mirroring the same requests. Enacting these provisions by the end of the year is critical for the production of affordable housing, as Novogradac and Company LLP projects that these two actions would collectively finance an additional 1.93 million affordable rental homes over the next 10 years.   

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