Senator Warner announced yesterday that the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Developmen (HUD) has approved $44.2 million to jumpstart affordable rental housing programs in Virginia.  

The grant comes from HUD's new Tax Credit Assistance Program (TCAP) via the economic recovery package.  TCAP provides grant funding to state housing finance agencies to resume affordable housing projects throghout the country while also creating jobs in the construction industry.

Senator Warner said:

“These grants will significantly boost our efforts to put Virginians back to work while also providing quality, affordable housing options for low-income families at a time when those options are critical.  These grants also should help unlock the credit markets while supporting shovel-ready projects.”

The financial crisis left the credit markets frozen, and as a result, as many as 1,000 projects -- nearly 150,000 units of housing -- stalled across the country.  To help move these projects forward, these tax credits will create an incentive for investors to provide capital to developers to build multi-family rental housing for moderate- and low-income families across Virginia.  

In total, the Recovery Act provided $2.25 billion for TCAP.  HUD is awarding TCAP grants by formula to state housing credit agencies (all 50 states plus the District of Columbia and the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico) to complete construction of qualified housing projects that will ultimately provide affordable housing to an estimated 35,000 households nationwide.

Since a major purpose of this program is job creation, the Recovery Act establishes ambitious deadlines to spend the grant funds and requires state housing credit agencies to give priority to projects that can begin immediately and be completed by February 16, 2012.