Maryland
Joins Campaign to Put Housing to Work
As the nation copes with the fallout from the economic downturn, state housing agencies
are working together to quickly get President Barack Obama’s $787 billion stimulus
funds into the hands of citizens to put people back to work and get money flowing
in the economy. To that end, the National Council of State Housing Agencies has
launched the ‘Put Housing to Work’ campaign to promote state efforts to use stimulus
funds to create or save 3.5 million jobs, improve housing options and get money
flowing in communities.
“We’re really excited about the opportunity to participate in the economic recovery
through our housing and community development programs,” said Maryland’s Department
of Housing and Community Development Secretary, Raymond Skinner. “Housing is economic
development. It helps to stimulate the economy, it creates jobs, it puts people
back to work and can also help loosen the credit markets by getting credit flowing
again into the economy.”
Maryland will receive more than $3.9 billion through the American Recovery and Reinvestment
Act signed by President Obama in February. The funds will be allocated over a two-year
period and include more than $234 million for housing and community development-related
programs. More than $113 million of those funds will be administered directly by
DHCD.
Nationally, state housing directors have been working together to share information
and to talk about what other states are doing to address barriers to getting money
out the door and into the hands of the community. Maryland is on the leading edge
of coming up with programmatic ideas and being able to get money out as quickly
as possible.
“Maryland is being very aggressive in terms of trying to get the money out as quickly
as possible,” says Secretary Skinner.
Secretary Skinner is confident that the stimulus funds will have a great impact
on the Maryland economy.
“The housing work that we’ll do from the funds we’re being allocated will literally
create thousands of jobs,” says Secretary Skinner. “We’ll get millions of dollars
flowing back into Maryland’s economy that will not only get people working, but
it will help the business owners, retailers and other businesses because people
will have money to go shopping again.”
Maryland’s plan includes increasing the number of affordable housing units available
in the state, especially in areas with expensive market-rate housing such as Howard,
Montgomery and Prince George’s counties.
Secretary Skinner says the funds will be focused in a number of areas.
“We will be working on a number of different fronts, including creating additional
multifamily houses through the $31 million we’ll received for programs like TCAP
(Tax Credit Assistance Program) that will help close the financial gaps in affordable
rental housing that have been created by the lack of credit and inability of developers
to be able to borrow money and to find investors who will buy the low income tax
credits.”
It is estimated that DHCD can fund over 20 affordable rental housing developments
that will create or preserve 1,500 units of affordable rental housing, creating
jobs, putting people back to work and getting money flowing into the state’s economy.
An innovation of state housing agencies is the Tax Credit Exchange Program that
allows a developer who cannot find an investor to exchange housing tax credits for
cash that then can be used to help finance affordable rental housing projects.
“We lobbied strongly through the National Council of State Housing Agencies to get
this allowance put into the ARRA,” said Secretary Skinner. “This tax credit exchange
is actually a very innovative idea because it is not really run like an existing
federal program but instead you can turn in the tax credit and get cash in return
and then put that cash into one of the affordable rental projects through a very
low interest loan.”
This effort, like many funded through ARRA, is part of an existing program that
is ‘shovel-ready’ and will receive extra funding and support. Secretary Skinner
says that between these two programs alone, DHCD should be able to create more than
2,000 affordable rental units over the next two years.
Other programs that will receive additional funding include the Community Development
Block Grant (CDBG), available only to local government entities, that can be used
for a wide variety of projects including infrastructure, as well as loans to developers
and other projects that create jobs that put people back to work and get money flowing
back into the community. The additional funding from the ARRA will piggyback on
the agency’s ongoing annual CDBG grant process, once again quickly getting funds
into communities.
As soon as they were alerted of the additional funds, DHCD officials began talking
to local jurisdictions about the need to have the so-called ‘shovel ready projects,’
and many have been working to get all of their permits in order whether it is for
the actual building permit, or the permit for water and sewer, other types of local
processes that they have to go through in order to be ready to build. As a result,
many Maryland projects will be ‘ready-to-go’. Secretary Skinner says these projects
will get top priority.
“The more prepared you are, the more likely you’ll get funded.”