The U.S. Department of the Treasury recently announced How-to Guidance on increasing the ability of state, local, and tribal governments to use American Rescue Plan (ARP) State and Local Recovery Fiscal Recovery Fund (SLFRF) payments to boost the supply of affordable housing in their communities.
There are two options outlined in the guidance.
For the first option, SLFRF funds used for affordable housing projects under the PH-NEI eligible use category are presumptively eligible if the project meets certain core requirements of an expanded list of federal housing programs
For the other alternative, SLFRF funds used for affordable rental housing under the PH-NEI eligible use category are presumptively eligible uses if the units funded serve households at or below 65% of Average Median Income (AMI) for a period of 20 years or greater.
SLFRF funds can now be used to fund the full principal amount of certain loans that finance long-term affordable housing investments. Among other requirements, the loans must have maturity and affordability covenants of 20 years or longer, including but not limited to loans that fund low-income housing tax credit (LIHTC) projects.
We encourage you to review this material with your Municipal Administrator.
Contact: Paul Penna, Senior Legislative Analyst, ppenna@njlm.org, 609-695-3481, x110.