ORCA has proposed to allocate the remaining $1.3 billion of the $3,057,991,440 in Ike/Dolly CDBG rebuilding funds based on a model…
Category: State issues
From following laws changed through the Supreme Court of Texas and the Texas Legislature to programs and procedures of the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs, we’re exploring statewide issues here.
Questions about nonprofit emerges in housing tax credit corruption trial
In an earlier post (see issue 14) I mentioned that some social services that Low Income Housing Tax Credit developers…
Bo McCarver’s weekly housing news compilation – 9/8/2009
As the housing market continues to sputter, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac falter under government conservatorship. The corporations have been…
Overview of the Tax Credit Exchange Program in Texas
Federal Program Highlights: Funding: 3 Billion Administering Agency: US Treasury Unused funds must be returned by 1/1/2011 Texas Program Highlights:…
Overview of the Tax Credit Assistance Program (TCAP) in Texas
Here is a brief overview of the Texas Credit Assistance Program and how it is shaping up in Texas. Federal…
It worked! TDHCA Tax Credit Exchange Program gets apps for 883 ELI apartments
The 2009 Stimulus Bill (American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009) contained a provision allowing the limited exchange of tax…
Testimony describes absurdity of Texas hurricane disaster fund allocation plan
Joe Higgs, organizer for Gulf Coast Interfaith, laid out clearly the problems with the proposed State of Texas plan to…
Houston Chronicle columnist Rick Casey on the politics of hurricane rebuilding
In his column today Houston Chronicle featured columnist Rick Casey speculates about why Governor Perry is allowing the Texas Office…
Bo McCarver’s weekly housing news compilation – 9/1/2009
The sputtering economy braces for another wave of mortgage defaults as loans carrying variable interest rates are pushed higher. Banks…
Texas gets 3,111 Section 8 vouchers for hurricane survivors
Now here is some really good news for Texas, and especially for the survivors of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. As…
Bo McCarver’s weekly housing news compilation – 8/25/2009
This story is repeated so often its headline is no longer news: more US homeowners find themselves “underwater” as the…
Ten principles should guide state administration of the Low Income Housing Tax Credit program
The Low Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) program is the largest affordable housing production program in Texas. At the Texas…
Bo McCarver’s housing news compilation – 8/18/2009
Across the nation, struggling homeowners who are behind in paying taxes on their homes are now faced with huge fees…
ORCA’s public hearing for $1.7 billion disaster relief program crashes
Today’s web based public hearing conducted by ORCA to accept public testimony on the $1.7 billion Hurricane Ike/Dolly CDBG Disaster…
Who is to blame in the Dallas tax credit corruption scandal?
In response to a recent blog post I received the following comment from an anonymous reader… Offering a bribe to…
When the price of community support got too high, housing tax credit developer turned to FBI
It’s like a pornographic movie… the Dallas housing tax credit trial… everyone gets screwed. In today’s trial testimony the Dallas Morning…
Government witness in Dallas corruption trial testifies he paid for community support for tax credit deal
Low income housing tax credit developer and star government witness in the Dallas public corruption trial Bill Fisher admitted in…
Bo McCarver’s housing news compilation — 8/11/2009
Years after Hurricanes Rita and Ike, FEMA has been ordered by a federal judge to publish rules for homeowners to…
Federal court orders FEMA to reconsider denial of home repairs to Hurricane Dolly survivors
Good news for the low income Hurricane Dolly survivors who were denied home repairs by FEMA! The United States District…
Governor Perry’s disaster rebuilding plan is the latest disaster to strike Texas
We share the state auditor’s concerns in a report just released about the unacceptable length of time it takes the…
Advocates offer recommendations to improve the Texas Low Income Housing Tax Credit Program
The Low Income Housing Tax Credit Program is the program that produces, by far, the largest number of affordable housing…
Bo McCarver’s weekly housing news compilation – 8/4/2009
Like trying to push a rope, the Obama Administration is having little luck getting banks to address troubled mortgages. The…
Hooray! Today was a historic day of progress in Texas affordable housing
The Board of Directors of the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs approved today a plan to use the…
$55,000 was the price for community support for affordable housing in Dallas
A document introduced into evidence today in the Dallas public corruption trial surrounding the Texas Low Income Housing Tax Credit…
Bo McCarver’s weekly housing news compilation – 7/28/2009
The supply/demand principle of free markets appears to be ignored in Texas: although foreclosure rates continue to climb, Texas homebuilders…
Bo McCarver’s weekly housing news compilation – 7/21/2009
It’s just getting harder and harder for business editors to spin rosy real estate articles but creativity abounds — we’re…
FBI recordings show tax credit developer and indicted local officials discussed redirecting housing bonds away from the poor
If you want to be discouraged about the way affordable housing has done in Texas all you need to do…
A culture of greed tarnishes the Texas Low Income Housing Tax Credit program
The Low Income Housing Tax Credit program in Texas is sometimes more about the developers making money building housing and…
The case for a new category of housing need — below poverty income
I have made myself an annoyance to many in the for-profit housing development industry by my constant insistence that housing…
Bo McCarver’s weekly housing news compilation – 7/14/2009
Slowly the nation realizes that banks are not in the business of financing mortgages but rather the business of making…