Housing

New State Tax Credits and Regulation Changes

The California Tax Credit Allocation Committee (CTCAC) administers federal and state low-income housing tax credit programs. Traditionally CTCAC has administered approximately $100 million per year in state tax credits. With the passage this year of AB 101, CTCAC is providing an additional $500 million in state tax credits specifically to target new construction of affordable units beginning in 2020.

In October 2019, new regulation changes that streamline the application process for these new state tax credits were approved by CTCAC, which is chaired by the Treasurer. The regulation changes will promote production, spur new innovations, and improve cost containment efforts involving affordable housing.

These new regulations require winning projects to be “shovel-ready” within 180 days of tax credit allocation and also favor projects that maximize the amount of new housing units that will be produced with the number of tax credits allocated. This will move the needle by decreasing barriers in the application process and will ultimately fast-track housing production.

As such, the new regulations should go a long way toward encouraging the development of new affordable housing units as quickly as possible. The first application deadline for a portion of the new state tax credits under the proposed regulations was November 15, 2019 for consideration at the January 15, 2020 CTCAC meeting.