News

Senior apartments on Greenville Highway win OK for tax-credit financing

By Lightning Reports, Published: August 30, 2024

An apartment building for senior housing won approval from a state agency for federal tax credit financing, an award that's likely to clear the way for the 58-unit affordable housing project to go up on Greenville Highway.

The senior apartments, in an L-shaped three-story building with a footprint of just over a half acre, would include a computer room with free WiFi, library. landscaping of native plant species and a gazebo overlooking a proposed pollinator garden, zoning applicant Stephen Drake told the city planning board. He also cited the proximity of supermarkets, drug stores, urgent care centers and churches. The N.C. Housing Finance Agency gave the site the maximum number of points in assessing the suitability of location, Drake added. The City Council in July unanimously overrode the planning board's recommendation on a 4-2 vote to deny the rezoning request.

Federal tax credits and other financing awarded earlier this month will build more than $1.1 billion in affordable apartments in 25 North Carolina counties, the housing finance agency announced last week in a news release. The work is expected to support 16,900 jobs and generate $73.3 million in state and local tax revenue.

Tax credits and tax-exempt bonds, including bond awards from January and June 2024, were approved for 50 projects by the North Carolina Federal Tax Reform Allocation Committee, based on recommendations from the North Carolina Housing Finance Agency, which administers the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit program.

“The LIHTC Program is essential for creating and maintaining affordable housing across North Carolina” said Scott Farmer, executive director of the NC Housing Finance Agency. “"These apartment homes will strengthen our communities by providing much-needed affordable housing options for working families and seniors.”

The funding will produce 4,211 privately owned and managed affordable apartments. These include 3,631 apartments for families and 580 for seniors. At least 420 of the apartments will be targeted for people with disabilities. The new awards will bring the number of Housing Credit apartments in the state to more than 128,900.

Twenty-eight properties were awarded $37 million from the Workforce Housing Loan Program, which was established by the NC General Assembly in 2014 to encourage development of Housing Credit apartments in low-income counties and reduce rents in moderate- and high-income counties. Agency loans totaling more than $17.5 million were awarded to 17 properties under the Rental Production Program which uses state and federal funds to improve economic feasibility for rental developments.

In 2024, the Golden LEAF Foundation, which provides funding to increase economic opportunity in rural, tobacco-dependent, and economically distressed communities in North Carolina, provided up to $6 million to support the development of new construction family properties in designated counties. Two properties received a combined $4 million under the Golden LEAF Affordable Workforce Housing Initiative, which is provided as a 30-year deferred loan at 0% interest.

A self-supporting public agency, Housing Finance Agency evaluates tax credit applications on behalf of the NC Federal Tax Reform Allocation Committee. The highly competitive program, which received 60 full applications this year, uses a quantitative ranking system and includes independent market studies of each property and site visits by Agency staff. New construction proposals were ranked on a point system. Points were awarded for site characteristics, design quality, affordability and other published criteria. Rehabilitation proposals were evaluated based on criteria primarily relating to the need for repair, extent of the proposed improvements and positive impact on the tenants’ quality of life. Since its creation by the General Assembly, the agency has financed more than 310,700 affordable homes and apartments, totaling $31.9 billion. To learn more about the agency and its programs, visit www.HousingBuildsNC.com.

THIS IS A DEVELOPING STORY. RETURN TO THE LIGHTNING FOR MORE COVERAGE.