October 03, 2012
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States continue to actively promote supportive housing, with virtually every Housing Credit agency fostering some form of supportive housing development through its Housing Credit program, according to the Corporation for Supportive Housing (CSH). In the latest edition of its now-annual report, CSH reviewed 54 qualified allocation plans (QAPs) to examine Housing Credit allocating agencies’ strategies to foster and encourage supportive housing development, highlighting significant 2012 QAP changes.

The report identifies a variety of innovative Housing Credit allocation approaches that favor supportive housing, including threshold requirements, set-asides, and scoring incentives. According to the report, changes in these approaches since the publication of the 2011 assessment reflect the growing demand and desire for quality supportive housing. Highlights include:

  • Nearly all Housing Credit agencies (50 out of 54) provide potential scoring advantages for supportive housing.
  • Forty-four Housing Credit agencies provide general scoring incentives encouraging supportive housing, special needs housing and/or housing for people with disabilities. This number increased from 2011. Two states, Arizona and Connecticut, added scoring incentives for supportive service provision.
  • Nineteen Housing Credit agencies promote supportive housing with Credit set-asides.
  • Two Housing Credit agencies, Alaska and North Carolina, have threshold requirements of dedicating 5 to 10 percent of Credit apartments for supportive housing. Six additional Housing Credit agencies have more general threshold requirements that promote supportive housing.

 

For the report’s purposes, supportive housing refers to housing with attached intensive services targeted to populations with special needs who struggle to retain stable housing without easy access to comprehensive supportive services, including persons who are currently or formerly homeless; persons with serious, chronic mental health issues; people affected by substance use; people with HIV/AIDS; people with physical or developmental disabilities; ex-offenders; frail elderly; homeless or emancipated youth; victims of domestic violence; and other groups that would not be able to live independently and maintain housing without intensive support.