Special Achievement: Special Achievement

Arizona Department of Housing:
Responding to a State Need with a Reengineered Qualified Allocation Plan

Arizona Department of Housing (ADOH) is addressing the 270,000 housing units needed statewide to meet current demand in Arizona by making it easier for affordable housing developers to gain access to our funding and tax credits. Through frequent stakeholder outreach, self-assessment, and streamlined processes, we re-imagined our QAP and ended up with fewer barriers and more innovative solutions to problems. This approach has led to ADOH increasing the number of affordable housing units assisted annually by 330% with a 60% increase in the number of LIHTC units created annually.

Colorado Housing and Finance Authority:
Colorado Affordable Housing Developer’s Guide

Colorado Housing and Finance Authority (CHFA) created the Colorado Affordable Housing Developer’s Guide to help increase capacity around affordable housing across the state by providing critical and timely technical assistance and resource development for communities statewide. The Guide’s intention is to help support local for-profit and nonprofit developers, community leaders, and advocates seeking to ensure that safe, decent, and affordable housing is an intentional and integrated part of their community fabric.

Illinois Housing Development Authority:
Illinois Housing Blueprint

In early 2020, IHDA’s leadership recognized a fundamental need to better understand the myriad housing needs across the state to better address these needs in the HFA’s targeting and programmatic focus. IHDA developed the Illinois Housing Blueprint (“the Blueprint”) to realize that vision and create a plan to achieve it.

Indiana Housing and Community Development Authority:
Indiana Housing Dashboard

In partnership with a housing working group comprised of key stakeholders from across Indiana, the Indiana Housing and Community Development Authority developed the Indiana Housing Dashboard. This dashboard was intended to demonstrate housing needs in the state in hopes of working with partners and developers to help close the gap. The dashboard includes data on housing stock in Indiana by age, price, number of units in a structure and number of bedrooms in a unit. A complete report can be generated for each county or statewide, compare individual counties, or counties to the state.

Iowa Finance Authority:
Rebranding Affordable Housing

Seven out of ten Iowans support housing, yet one in three housing tax credit projects in the state are blocked by opposition. This told us that we had an affordable housing branding problem. This problem was addressed head-on with eye-opening research and a public relations campaign that ensured that a $100 million investment in housing would not only be understood but would create the intended housing units for Iowans.

Kentucky Housing Corporation:
Communicating Rental Vacancies Post-Disaster

In December 2021, much of Western Kentucky was ravaged by a tornado and heavy storms, leaving many people homeless with nowhere to turn. KHC sprang into action, helping assemble a comprehensive list to place those who were homeless in safe, permanent units so they could begin rebuilding their lives.

MaineHousing:
Delivering on a promise. $100 million in rent relief in just nine months.

MaineHousing has worked quickly to deliver just over $100 million in Emergency Rental Funds in 9 short months. This entry will detail how important this program was to Mainers and some of the innovative practices we adopted to assure this program was successful.

New York City Housing Development Corporation:
Promoting the Next Generation of Leaders through the NYC Housing & Planning Fellowship

The new NYC Housing and Planning Fellowship is two-year rotational program designed to expose a diverse cohort of eight rising young professionals to city government specifically in the fields of affordable housing, city and neighborhood planning and economic development. The Fellowship is designed to provide direct, professional work experience at HPD, HDC, DCP and EDC with the shared mission to plan for the future of New York City through the creation and preservation of affordable housing and the promotion of land use and economic development policies that will help the city thrive.

New York State Homes and Community Renewal:
Sustainability Guidelines

New York’s HCR recently passed a 100,000-unit housing plan to be completed in the next five year. The NYS Climate Act of 2019 sets carbon reduction goals of at least 85% by 2050. These two ambitious goals set the stage for HCR to launch a Clean Energy Initiative that will produce Climate Friendly homes with easy access to design standards and clean energy funding through an innovative interagency collaboration with HCR and the state’s energy authority, NYSERDA.

North Carolina Housing Finance Agency:
Self-Paced Interactive Training for Housing Partners

In 2020, North Carolina’s independent reviewer reported a need for Fair Housing training for housing partners who serve people with disabilities. The reviewer challenged the NC Housing Finance Agency (the Agency) to provide additional training to help strengthen their retention of Fair Housing rights. The Agency wrote, designed and produced self-paced interactive e-Learning trainings focused on refreshers for both Fair Housing advocacy and program guidelines that would be hosted on the Agency's website and forwarded to our target audience throughout the year.

Oregon Housing and Community Services:
The Gateway Transitional to Permanent Housing Project

Talent, Oregon, was devastated by the 2020 Almeda Fire. Thousands of residents lost their homes, seeking refuge with family or emergency shelters. Families of about 700 students were displaced from their communities due to scarce local housing options. The Gateway Project is a community-driven approach to housing families with school-age children who would otherwise moved out of the district. It demonstrates how community, government agencies, and nonprofit partners can rebuild working together.

Pennsylvania Housing Finance Agency:
Certificate in Family Services

Housing Service providers were not receiving affordable training to assist in providing services to our family properties. In response, the Pennsylvania Housing Finance Agency, in partnership with the California University of Pennsylvania launched the Certificate in Family Service Coordination Program. Since it’s inception, the program has trained over 130 coordinators and benefitted over 2,500 residents.

Rhode Island Housing:
Empowering Voucher Holders: HCVP Guide to Rhode Island Communities

RIHousing administers Housing Choice Vouchers in 20 communities across the state, the majority of which are suburban or rural communities unfamiliar to families who may currently reside in urban areas. It can be a daunting task for voucher holders to find apartments, and more so when they are looking in communities they are unfamiliar with. Our new HCVP Guide to Rhode Island Communities provides important and helpful information and resources to inform and empower RIHousing voucher holders and help them find communities that meet their needs. And they can do so in just two clicks!

Wisconsin Housing and Economic Development Authority:
Rural Affordable Workforce Housing Initiative

Access to safe, affordable housing is the foundation of stable communities. WHEDA’s Rural Affordable works with rural communities to identify potential housing solutions that fit their unique needs. The initiative features new supplemental financing tools as well as an innovative community pilot program.