Dennis Shockley
Executive director, Oklahoma Housing Finance Agency
What’s the biggest
change you’ve made to the 2015 qualified allocation plan (QAP), and why?
The addition of the new Oklahoma State Housing Tax Credit, effective for 2015. The state credits are restricted to counties with populations of less than 150,000, so they are for rural counties. It currently is restricted to $4 million in state credits. They are 10-year credits. The Oklahoma Legislature enacted the state tax credit into law in 2014.
What trends are you seeing in your 9% and/or 4% credit low-income housing tax credit (LIHTC) programs?
Elderly developments with more open and spacious living. The trend seems to be toward more rentals, less homeownership—not just out of necessity, but many times by choice.
What strategies are you implementing to preserve existing affordable housing?
Additional scoring criteria points can be awarded to proposed developments that will acquire and rehabilitate these properties.
What is your agency doing to address cost containment?
Currently, OHFA uses the 221(d)(3) as measurement. If a proposed development exceeds that, we ask for justification. We fail the applicant on threshold (cost) if none is provided or the cost is over 15% of the 221(d)(3) limits. It is becoming a challenge for OHFA to measure this as the Department of Housing and Urban Development is modifying its cost calculation. We tried to move to square foot and received pushback from the developers. We are trying to maintain a historical base on square foot for possible use in the future. OHFA’s biggest concern is the soft costs in a development it seems to increase more than the hard costs.
What advice do you have for developers applying for LIHTCs and/or other financing in your state? What’s a common mistake developers make when applying for funding?
Make sure your market study reflects the actual market. Our rural areas are challenged as most rural America is by the changing demographics. And, pay attention to the application requirements—too many mistakes take up staff time in getting the correct information to review and underwrite an application.
