Hatchett Family: Preserving Communities

Sharnique Hatchett and her family live in Hollybrook Farms in Laurel, Delaware. In 2009, they almost lost their home. Hollybrook Farms applied for housing tax credits from Delaware State Housing Authority (DSHA) in March of 2007 to purchase and rehab the site. They were awarded more than $800,000 in credits in July of that year.  Construction began in 2008.

In May of 2009, Hollybrook Farms lost its investor. Due to the downturn in the equity markets, investors for tax credit projects basically dried up. The project was in jeopardy of foreclosure, and came precariously close to shutting down. Under the Tax Credit Exchange provisions of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, DSHA exchanged the unsold credits that had been awarded to Hollybrook Farms ($512,642) for cash from the IRS in the amount of $4,357,457.

Without these funds, the project would have gone into foreclosure, been shut down, tenants displaced, and the subsidy lost.  Not only did the Exchange Program save the project from foreclosure, 124 affordable family units were preserved, and 189 jobs were brought to the area economy.