The Minnesota Housing Finance Agency (MHFA) has begun its formal review and revision process for the 2013 Qualified Allocation Plan, and recently released a summary of proposed changes. MHFA’s Board will review the final QAP and procedural manual revisions at its March 22 meeting. Proposed changes include:

  • Require new construction proposals to utilize the floating tax credit percentage rate;
  • Revise targeting of the State Designated Basis Boost;
  • Combine Large Family Housing, Single Room Occupancy and Special Populations into one Household Targeting scoring criterion;
  • Revise Project Location — Top Growth Communities scoring criterion;
  • Remove the duplicative Regulatory Cost;
  • Avoidance/Cost Reduction scoring criterion;
  • Revise the Local/Philanthropic Contributions scoring criterion to incorporate federal contributions;
  • Remove the Non-Financial Readiness to Proceed items from the Readiness to Proceed scoring criterion;
  • Remove the Underserved Populations scoring criterion and make it a threshold requirement;
  • Revise the Temporary Priority – Foreclosed Properties scoring criterion;
  • Combine Preservation of Federally Assisted and Preservation of Existing Housing Tax Credits as separate options into one scoring criterion and add clarifying language to Preservation of Existing Housing Tax Credits;
  • Revise the Rental Assistance scoring criteria to provide maximum points for projects with 100% Project Based Rental Assistance Contracts and reduce the term of the extended commitment from five years to four years;
  • Replace Regulatory Cost Avoidance/Cost Reduction with Cost Containment — Per Unit Cost Limits scoring criterion;
  • Set a Preservation award ceiling at 2/3 of each regional pool;
  • Require that Housing Tax Credit developments without RFP funding adhere to architectural design and sustainable housing design requirements consistent with RFP Design standards;
  • Remove the requirement that a nonprofit organization applying to the Nonprofit Set-aside must be local, organized and incorporated in the state of Minnesota.

Click here to read the summary of proposed changes and QAP