Yesterday evening, after months of anticipation, the North Carolina Senate released their proposal for the state budget. The Senate proposes a total spending budget of $25.7 billion in the Fiscal Year 2021-2022 and $26.6 billion for Fiscal Year 2022-2023. For housing programs, the Senate’s proposal would invest much less funding into housing than what Governor Roy Cooper called for (Cooper recommended investing over $575 million in ARPA funds to affordable housing needs.)
For housing programs the Senate’s proposed funding amounts are listed below:
The Senate also proposes statutory and procedural changes for the North Carolina Housing Finance Agency, including changes for the Qualified Allocation Plan which details how the state’s Low-Income Housing Tax Credits are allocated every year. Some of those proposed changes are:
- Require NCHFA to study potential changes to the amenity scoring in the QAP. Including the following changes:
- Eliminating, deprioritizing, or redefining the “shopping”, “grocery”, and “pharmacy” categories.
- Remove distinction between primary and secondary amenities.
- Establish scoring threshold for amenities & measures of opportunity.
- Remove cap on construction costs for historic rehabs.
These amenities changes could potentially go into the 2023 QAP. For the 2022 & 2023 housing credit cycles, the Senate would add 10% set-aside for historic rehabs or projects within downtown cores. While also creating a new program to run alongside the housing credits that would provide $3.5 M per year for these historic or downtown developments. We are currently examining the proposed changes around NCHFA’s enabling statutes and budget processes and will provide for insight into those in a future alert. Stay tuned for more details and analysis.
