Post by blackcrowheart on Jan 24, 2006 18:09:39 GMT -5
Twelve tribal projects earn Arizona tax credits
Posted: January 24, 2006
by: Mark Fogarty / Today correspondent
LAS VEGAS - Twelve tribal housing projects have received Arizona Low Income Housing Tax Credit awards since 2001, according to Sheila Harris, director of the Arizona Department of Housing.
LIHTC awards are a national program determined by the number of people in a state, but are administered by state agencies, usually housing finance agencies. Tribes are eligible since the per capita figures used in the awards' calculations include tribal populations.
Tax credit deals got a slow start in Indian country because of traditional tribal-state government tensions, but are now commonplace.
Harris told a recent legal symposium, sponsored in Las Vegas by the National American Indian Housing Council, that the state has implemented a Tribal Housing Initiative Task Force that has been funded at $2.5 million per year for the past two years.
Some of those projects funded have included the Bee Hogan Shelter Foundation's rehabilitation and construction project on the Navajo Nation that received $550,000 from the state fund, a multifamily duplex project for the Yavapai Apache tribe that took in tax credits, emergency repair funds for the Hopi Housing Authority when rains damaged 24 home roofs, rehabs for the Pascua Yaqui Nation, and a tax credit deal for two- and three-bedroom homes on the Fort Apache reservation.
In addition, the department has supported an Affordable Housing Institute training course in which three tribes, including the Salt River Pima-Maricopa, have participated.
In the Phoenix area, where 90,000 Indians live, Harris said the department has supported Native American Connection, which has developed $49 million of housing for 600 Native households.
The state has also received a planning grant to work on developing a community development financial institution to serve all 22 Arizona tribes. The state will re-apply to the Treasury Department, which runs the CDFI Fund, to get a CDFI certification for this entity this winter. CDFIs invest or lend in low-income areas, and have been increasing in Indian areas after a slow start.
Harris noted that the 22 tribes control one-quarter of Arizona's land area
Posted: January 24, 2006
by: Mark Fogarty / Today correspondent
LAS VEGAS - Twelve tribal housing projects have received Arizona Low Income Housing Tax Credit awards since 2001, according to Sheila Harris, director of the Arizona Department of Housing.
LIHTC awards are a national program determined by the number of people in a state, but are administered by state agencies, usually housing finance agencies. Tribes are eligible since the per capita figures used in the awards' calculations include tribal populations.
Tax credit deals got a slow start in Indian country because of traditional tribal-state government tensions, but are now commonplace.
Harris told a recent legal symposium, sponsored in Las Vegas by the National American Indian Housing Council, that the state has implemented a Tribal Housing Initiative Task Force that has been funded at $2.5 million per year for the past two years.
Some of those projects funded have included the Bee Hogan Shelter Foundation's rehabilitation and construction project on the Navajo Nation that received $550,000 from the state fund, a multifamily duplex project for the Yavapai Apache tribe that took in tax credits, emergency repair funds for the Hopi Housing Authority when rains damaged 24 home roofs, rehabs for the Pascua Yaqui Nation, and a tax credit deal for two- and three-bedroom homes on the Fort Apache reservation.
In addition, the department has supported an Affordable Housing Institute training course in which three tribes, including the Salt River Pima-Maricopa, have participated.
In the Phoenix area, where 90,000 Indians live, Harris said the department has supported Native American Connection, which has developed $49 million of housing for 600 Native households.
The state has also received a planning grant to work on developing a community development financial institution to serve all 22 Arizona tribes. The state will re-apply to the Treasury Department, which runs the CDFI Fund, to get a CDFI certification for this entity this winter. CDFIs invest or lend in low-income areas, and have been increasing in Indian areas after a slow start.
Harris noted that the 22 tribes control one-quarter of Arizona's land area