Site Alignment with Financial Resources
From a strategic standpoint, you can use site selection to increase your competitiveness for housing financing by assessing sites relative to eligibility or scoring criteria used to award the LIHTC or access financing available through Government-Sponsored Enterprises (GSEs). This may also apply to state-level QAP funding. Also, if you are using HUD or USDA funding, be sure that your review process meets their requirements, as much federal funding requires specific environmental review.
Alignment with states’ Qualified Allocation Plans
When state housing finance agencies use a Qualified Allocation Plan (or QAP) to award tax credits to affordable housing developers, scoring criteria often focuses on locational factors, such as transit service to or near a site or proximity to destinations, like healthcare facilitates or schools. In more rural parts of the country, emphasis on access to destinations and transit can be a disadvantage.
The state of Nevada last released a public QAP draft in 2023 as of this toolkit, but be sure to look for the most updated version and contact the Nevada Housing Division. This QAP states that projects will be evaluated on general site suitability and marketability.
Nonetheless, understanding your site’s location relative to factors in your respective state’s QAP can help increase your competitiveness for LIHTC financing. Nine (9) percent tax credits provide a larger amount of equity for affordable development projects, but are awarded on a competitive basis, with the highest scoring projects receiving the subsidy. Examine QAPs for the relevant priorities such as if you're developing a tribal or rural project or targeting vulnerable populations like those at-risk of homelessness or veterans.
No matter what, consider direct outreach to staff at the Nevada Housing Division, both to shape overall scoring criteria and provide concrete examples of when sites don’t align with QAP scoring criteria. Specific examples of misalignment can help with more systemic changes. Communications with housing finance agencies about priority projects can result in awards where discretion exists.