Each year the Chicago Department of Housing (DOH) and Illinois Housing Development Authority (IHDA) seek community input on application and development processes for proposed projects supported in part by Low Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) equity financing. What follows are two suggestions by Voice to begin dialogue about prioritizing service-enriched, permanently affordable housing and a method to provide stabilizing services to residents/projects via increased property management fees.
QAP Request/Comment #1
Preferred Scoring for Permanently Affordable Housing
Background: For those who value communities with a mix of people of various incomes, ages and needs, or who seek to mitigate the negative influences of disinvestment or reinvestment activity over time, service-enriched, permanently affordable housing is a cornerstone resource.
Request/Comment: QAP applicants for affordable housing support should be awarded one extra point in scoring if they can demonstrate that their proposed project will be “permanently affordable”.
Further Context: Applicants including limited-equity coops, shared equity housing, projects subject to public or private 99-year lease or use restrictions, and community land trusts might be eligible for preferred scoring as long as they can demonstrate that affordability restrictions cannot be easily subordinated. Even as an incremental modification in scoring, this measure might spark dialogue in community development planning and programming.
QAP Request/Comment #2
Allow for Increased Property Management Fees for Select Support Services
Background: Affordable Housing property management is labor and cost-intensive work, made more difficult with compliance requirements and tenants needs for specialized services to keep them stable in their homes. When such services are delivered and paid by other means, property management benefits, and projects become more economically sustainable. Though DOH and IHDA recognize the need for this kind of funding, they concentrate on support of precisely defined acquisition, development and property management/building operations.
Request/Comment: QAP applicants could request property management fees of up to 10%. When requested, the differential would be allocated to select “Property Management Support Services” for affordable housing residents, provided by qualified staff, directly or via contract, that benefit property management with:
- tenant communications and meetings;
- triaged interventions to avert evictions and problem solve with tenants;
- transition services to assist tenants with move-ins, transfers and move-outs; and
- coordination of care support to facilitate communications with outside agencies providing support services to tenants.
Video Short: Property Management & Resident Services Working Together
Further Context: Such services would not take the place of social service agency assistance, which tend to include traditional case management, clinical or non-clinical health and wellness programming, “wealth building” services and training, civic organizing and community engagement activities – which should all be separately funded. For more background or examples of eligible services visit vophousing.com/property-management-support-services.