Save the Date
Jun 7: Member's Meeting, 9-10:30 am, Woodford's Church, Portland
Aug 2: Member's Meeting, 9-10:30 am, TBD n person
Oct 4: Member's Meeting, 9-10:30 am, TBD in person
Nov 17: MAHC Conference, 8 am - 4 pm, Westin Portland Harborview - Sponsorship Opportunities Available!
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Cost of Construction Discussion Summary
More than fifty MAHC members had an engaging discussion on the status of rising construction costs, organizational approaches, and brainstormed systemwide approaches that included:
- Identify opportunities for sharing the increased risk of increased costs across multiple parties (developer, contractor, syndicator, lenders, municipality, MSHA)? Might reduce some of the padding in bids to address rising costs.
- Support ARPA funding use for LIHTEC. See below for the Sen. Collins' co-sponsored LIFELINE bill that addresses this and an article from Pew article on this.
- Bond for more money to get shovel ready projects built and maintain the pipeline.
- Talk with Finance Authority of ME on gap financing or other solutions.
- Engage with DOL, AGC and others on workforce development
- Identify projects that are ready, that are in particular need, to find unique solutions
- MSHA follow up on: Clarity of structure for limited notices to proceed ($1 million - $3 million). How should these work and what's the timing? Bulk purchase – is there a broad entity that can do this? (wood, steel) Review cost caps (TDC has increased)
- More opportunities to bring lenders together to discuss this issue
For a full summary, click here.
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MSHA QAP Hearing - 5/17
MAHC will be submitting testimony on this as well as suggestions for Appendix E. You can participate in a public hearing on Tuesday, May 17, 2022 at 9:30 a.m. at Maine State Housing Authority, 26 Edison Drive, Augusta, Maine. The proposed rules and rule-making notices are here. To listen or testify virtually, please contact Gerrylynn Ricker no later than 5:00 p.m. on Thursday, May 12, 2022 at MaineHousing, 26 Edison Drive, Augusta, Maine 04330-6046; (207) 626-4600 (voice); 1-800-452-4668 (voice in state only); or 711 (Maine Relay) or via e-mail: gricker@mainehousing.org. Feel free to email MAHC with comments on this as well.
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ARPA Funds for LIHTEC: LIFELINE Bill
"Both the House and Senate versions of the LIFELINE Act allow FRF to be loaned to Housing Credit developments as a soft financing source to fill debts with loan maturities of 30 years or more and allow repayments on those loans to be used to finance affordable housing, including future Housing Credit properties. The Senate bill clarifies that FRF loans are available only to Housing Credit properties that will place in service after the bill’s enactment." More
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MSHA's Revised Multi-family Mortgage Loans Rule
Maine Housing is sharing their revised Multi-family Mortgage Loans Rule. Final revisions here and MSHA will begin rule-making in May and will hold a public hearing in June. Please send questions and comments directly to: Mark Wiesendanger, mwiesendanger@mainehousing.org
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Construction Input Prices Up
"Construction input prices are up 23.7% from a year ago, while nonresidential construction input prices are 24.0% higher. Input prices were up in 10 of 11 subcategories in April. Softwood lumber was the only category in which prices decreased, falling 17.7% for the month. The largest price increases were in natural gas (+16.9%) and unprocessed energy materials (+10.3%)." Read more here.
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HUD Understanding Fair Housing Law Training
5/26, 11 am - Training for Landlords, Property Managers and Realtors
Assist landlords, property managers and realtors in understanding Fair Housing laws and obligations including who is protected, what types of housing are covered, prohibitions, and more. HUD Fair Housing staff will also take participants through the process of how fair housing investigations are conducted. Need to register in advance. |
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Two New MSHA Programs
Rural Affordable Rental Housing Program
The Rural Affordable Rental Housing Program was created to provide economic equity to rural areas of Maine, which are often left out of the Low Income Housing Tax Credit program as the size, scale and lack of investor interest makes them all but unworkable. The Program will provide subsidy in the form of zero interest forgivable loans as well as paying debt for the acquisition and substantial rehabilitation or construction of any units developed under the Program.
Affordable Housing Initiative for Maine Islands
MaineHousing is making funding available to finance the creation or substantial rehabilitation of affordable multi-family rental housing units located on Maine’s island communities. Rental housing units must remain as rental housing for a minimum of 45 years and must be leased to full-time island residents as their primary residence.
For more information about all of our multifamily developer programs, please visit our webpage:
https://mainehousing.org/programs-services/housing-development
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Member's Meeting Speakers- 6/7, 9-10:30 am
MAHC is pleased to welcome Mufalo Chitam, Executive Director of the Maine Immigrant Rights Coalition, Greg Payne from the Governor's Office, and others to speak about the needs and solutions being developed to house new immigrants arriving in Maine. Networking, coffee, and snacks will also be available at Woodford's Church, 202 Woodford Street, Portland. Hope to see you there.
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Meet Laura Mitchell, new Director of MAHC
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Over the next few months in my new role as MAHC Director I look forward to meeting many of you in person or via Zoom. I want to understand your business challenges and how MAHC can support Maine in meeting it's need for 1,000 new units of quality, affordable housing a year. Please find a time on this calendar when we can meet. These 30-minute meetings are over zoom. The link is included in your calendar invitation. Feel free to book two 30-minute blocks together if you'd like more time. Thank you and I will see you soon.
https://doodle.com/bp/lauramitchell/new-mahc-director-laura-mitchell---meeting
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