Treasury Department Blog Highlights Housing Credit Best Practices to Discourage Qualified Contracts and Keep Housing Affordable Longer
On December 12, 2024, the U.S. Department of Treasury published the blog post, “Housing Crisis in Focus: LIHTC Best Practices to Discourage Qualified Contracts and Keep Housing Affordable for Longer.” The post highlights state Housing Credit agency best practices to discourage the use of qualified contracts as a means of removing the affordability restrictions from properties before the end of their extended use periods. The blog post states, “Treasury strongly supports efforts undertaken by state allocating agencies to adopt policies that prioritize credits for, or limit credit allocations to, projects for which the owner agrees to waive the qualified contract option.” The post goes on to note Treasury encourages agencies to apply waiver requirements for both 9 and 4 percent properties. Treasury highlights the tax code’s direction to state agencies to give preference to properties that serve qualified tenants for the longest periods possible.
