DevelopOhio

Buried deep in its 6,198 pages, Ohio’s recently enacted operating budget (Am. Sub. House Bill 33) authorizes the creation of a dual-track grant/tax credit program for near-exclusive use by land banks (both municipal and county types) for affordable housing development. We have previously shared that land banks – particularly county land bank-types – should consider taking their well-deserved seat at the economic development table. The Welcome Home Ohio Program catapults land banks into the role of executive chef, at least when affordable housing is on the menu. That said, the lengthy list of recipe ingredients that must be used to access this form of public financing may diminish the appetites of affordable housing market participants. For more read the full article.

If you were living your life fully in late December 2022, you can be excused for having missed a big deal in the world of the American Rescue Plan Act. Your “B-sides” authors, however, grew excited at the prospect of new eligible funding categories (i.e., additional buckets of use) for recipients’ ARPA allocations. For more, read the full article.

With the U.S. Treasury’s January 2022 release of its Final Rule in the use of American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds, we began publishing this series of articles reviewing the lesser publicized aspects of that guidance (hence, the “B-sides” moniker). In this edition, we address the Treasury’s presumed eligible use of federal stimulus funding in the development of affordable housing, and the limited scope under which private, for-profit entities may receive transfers of ARPA funds to carry out such ends.  

For more, read the full article.

Much ballyhoo has accompanied the U.S. Treasury’s publication in January 2022 of its Final Rule in the use of American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds. Local governments across the country are scrambling to deploy their stimulus funds in response to the pandemic, pay essential workers, provide government services, and invest in water, sewer and broadband infrastructure. Buried in the Final Rule and its 403-page clarifying guidance is an express authorization to use funds to address vacant and abandoned buildings, including commercial and industrial structures.  

For more, read the full article.