NCSHA Adopts Stronger Housing Credit Recommended Practices

In December 2017, the National Council of State Housing Agencies’ (NCSHA) released a final report for its annual Recommended Practices series. The final report consolidates NCSHA’s Recommended Practices in Housing Credit Allocation and Underwriting and its Recommended Practices in Housing Credit Compliance Monitoring. By updating and expanding the report, NCSHA has strengthened a number of existing recommended practices and included 13 important new practices in state program administration.

NCSHA adopted many of the suggestions submitted by the NHT-facilitated National Preservation Working Group (PWG), including creating new Recommended Practices which encourage preservation with the Housing Credit, discourage the use of Qualified Contracts, and create safeguards against foreclosure, to maximize the long-term affordability of Housing Credit properties. 

The report incorporates the NHT/PWG recommendations that concerted community revitalization plans should be encouraged but not dispositive, and, that states should set their own definitions of or criteria for these plans. The Recommended Practices promote a balanced approach to investment in both “high opportunity” and less advantaged communities. The report also calls for state agencies to consider the potential long-term savings in operating costs and capital expenses associated with sustainable development initiatives and to assess energy efficiency improvements as part of capital needs assessment for proposed projects, as NHT suggested. 

For more information, please contact NHT Federal Policy Director Ellen Lurie Hoffman.