Thank you to our Sponsors!

Platinum

Gold

     

Silver

AGM Financial Services
Ballard Spahr
Bozzuto Construction
CBP Constructors
CPDC
Conifer Realty
Maryland DHCD
Gallagher, Evelius & Jones
Howard County Housing
Klein Hornig
Landex Corporation
Osprey Property Company
Pennrose Properties
PNC Bank
Quantum RE Management
Shelter Development
Southway Builders
SunTrust Bank

Bronze

Baltimore Housing

Boston Capital

CHAI, Inc.

CL McCoy Framing

Conifer LeChase Construction

Delaware Valley Development Corp.

Green Street Housing

Grimm & Parker

Habitat America

Housing Trust of America

Hudson Housing Capital

Humphrey Management

Ingerman Management

Marks Thomas Architects

National Foundatoin for Affordable Housing Solutions

Novogradac & Company

Pax-Edwards

PIRHL

R4 Capital

Raymond James

Real Property Research Group

Red Stone Equity Partners
RPH Architecture

Stavrou Companies

Victory Housing

Wells Fargo

Woori America Bank

Non-Profits

ACDS

AHC of Greater Baltimore

ARC of the Central Chesapeake Region

Episcopal Housing

HOC of Montgomery County

Interfaith Housing Alliance

MAHRA

Mission First Housing

Volunteers of America

Ivy Dench-Carter, President

Peter Siegel, Vice President

Jonette Hahn, Treasurer

Jessica Zuniga, Secretary

Tom Ayd

Eric Brown

Ed Delany

Jim French

Kim Fry

Phil Gibbs

Chickie Grayson, Ex Officio

Jeff Hettleman

Kathleen Koch


Michael Pitchford

Dave Raderman, Of Counsel

Corine Sheridan

Andrew Vincent

Over 300 Members and Guests gathered on October 19, 2016 in Baltimore for the MAHC Annual Meeting.  Lt. Governor Boyd Rutherford joined us to highlight the success of the Rental Housing Works Program.  Matt Heckles provided an update on DHCD programs, and Bob Moss provided an overview of what to expect in Washington this session in terms of legislative proposals around tax reform and changes to the Low Income Housing Tax Program.   Ivy Dench-Carter, MAHC President, reviewed MAHC's accomplishments in 2015 and priorities for the next year, which include getting more nonprofits involved with MAHC Committees.  Jessica Zuniga, MAHC Legislative Chair, talked about MAHC's Legislative Priorities for 2017 which include $20 Million in funding for Rental Housing Works, full funding of DHCD's rental housing budget, and an increase in funding for the Maryland Affordable Housing Trust.       

Join us for the MAHC Holiday MIxer at the new Open Works Studio, 1400 Greenmount Ave., Baltimore, MD on December 6, 2016 from 5:30 - 7:30 p.m. MAHC Members and guests are invited to join us to celebrate the holiday season with a networking mixer.  Please go HERE to register if you plan to attend, as space is limited.  

Thank you to our Members who responded to our Action Alert and reached out to members of the Board of Public Works to oppose the $1 Million cut to the Rental Housing Program budget.  Unfortunately, the BPW voted unanimously to approve the proposed total of $7 Million in cuts to DHCD programs, including $1 Million from Rental Housing Programs (RHW), $1 Million from Partnership Rental Housing Program, $500,000 from Housing and Building Energy Programs, $1 Million from Community Legacy, and $500,000 from Neighborhood Business Development, among other cuts.  The 2017 Legislative Session is more important than ever to ensure that Rental Housing Works is adequately funded and able to provide funds to the 26 projects currently in DHCD's pipeline awaiting RHW funding.  The 2017 Maryland Legislative Session begins at Noon on January 11, 2017.

This is an important update from the Housing Advisory Group:

We are almost a week removed from the election, and thus have had time to catch up with congressional staff and colleagues in the industry. These ongoing conversations have a common theme: Tax reform, once considered an elusive legislative goal, now is much more of a political and legislative reality with the election of President-elect Trump and the House and Senate both controlled by Republicans.

A process exists, budget reconciliation, which allows House and Senate leadership to expedite tax reform and limits the ability of opposition to prevent proposals from passing. Under reconciliation, proposals only need 51 votes in the Senate and thus avoid the 60 votes needed to prevent a filibuster. Therefore, if the House and Senate come to an agreement on a tax reform proposal(s) they can pass it with little or no Democratic support and send it to President Trump for his signature.

The affordable housing industry must be prepared for this possibility. Despite the strong bipartisan support the LIHTC has in the Congress, this is a new environment where the achievable goal of passing tax reform could overwhelm good policy making. Congress must be aware of how some reform proposals could hinder affordable housing production.

Therefore, we and our colleagues in the industry are asking our memberships to immediately reach out to your congressional representatives and emphasize the importance of the LIHTC and affordable housing programs in their communities. Our successes over the years have been the result of our elected representatives seeing what the LIHTC accomplishes in their communities. Please take every opportunity you can over the next two months to introduce, reintroduce and highlight the success of affordable housing at home.

Maryland Elected Officials Contact Information can be found HERE.

The brown bag lunch series continues to provide learning opportunities for our members.  In November, we learned how PACE Financing can be used to fund multifamily deals.  On December 9, 2016 from 9:30am - 12:00pm  we will be holding our first Bond Finance 201 session in Greenbelt, MD to discuss more advanced bond financing structures.  Also in December, we have a Brown Bag Lunch scheduled for December 15, 2016 from 12:00 - 1:30pm at South River Restoration in Upper Marlboro.  This event is geared to property owners and managers, and we will discuss emergency preparedness and making sure managers and owners have a game plan in place to address any emergency that may arise at your site.  Go to our CALENDAR PAGE to register for any of our upcoming events.

• DHCD received 41 applications for $32.5 Million in Rental Housing Funds and $56.5 Million in Federal Low Income Housing Tax Credits in the Fall Low Income Housing Tax Credit Round.   They anticipate awarding $14 Million in LIHTC and $14 Million in Rental Housing Funds this round.  Funds announcements are expected to be made in the first quarter of 2017.  
  
  
• DHCD is hosting a full day Building Science Fundamentals training on December 7 or 8, 2016 (one day session with two date options).  The training is intended for staff who are involved with project design and will focus on topics such as effects of climate, diagnostic testing, HVAC, ventilation and other topics.  For more information or to register, please contact Tim McLaurin at DHCD HERE.
  
  
• DHCD has issued a NOFA for Project Based Rental Assistance open to existing non-age restricted properties in their portfolio that want to provide additional units for persons with disabilities.  More details HERE.