More than 2,700 Affordable Apartments will be Created and/or Rehabilitated

TRENTON, NJ - New Jersey Housing and Mortgage Finance Agency (HMFA) Executive Director Anthony L. Marchetta today announced that the HMFA, an independent state agency affiliated with the New Jersey Department of Community Affairs (DCA), recently awarded funding reservations to allow tax-exempt bond financing to 21 affordable housing developers. The reservations total over $225 million and will allow the issuance of tax-exempt bonds to fund the construction and/or rehabilitation more than 2,700 affordable apartments. 

The award recipients were selected following a published Notice of Funding Availability (NOFA) inviting developers with projects seeking the 4% Low Income Housing Tax Credits (LIHTC) to apply for tax exempt financing reservations by fulfilling selection criteria.

"Due in large part to the success of HMFA's Conduit Bond Financing Program and the leveraging of Superstorm Sandy CDBG-Disaster Recovery funds and New Jersey Economic Development Authority Residential Economic Redevelopment and Growth Program subsidies, demand for the HMFA’s tax exempt bond financing reached unprecedented levels over the past two years," says Marchetta. "In order to be fair, since volume cap is needed in order to issue tax exempt bonds, we had to make the selection process a competitive one."

On May 26, 2016, the HMFA Board approved proposed Selection Criteria in order to provide an objective methodology of awarding reservations as financing becomes available for projects beyond the existing 2016 priorities.  Those priorities include Superstorm Sandy projects receiving Fund for the Restoration of Multifamily Housing (FRM) and/or Sandy Special Needs Housing Fund (SSNHF) funds; and non-Sandy projects that have received an HMFA commitment.

NJHMFA’s innovative multifamily Conduit Bond program supplements the Agency’s core, direct lending multifamily rental housing program by issuing tax-exempt and taxable bonds on a pass-through basis for the borrower. Conduit was extensively used to leverage the second round of the federal Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) Disaster Recovery monies through the Fund for Restoration of Multifamily Housing (FRM) Program released in 2014, and served as gap financing for the Agency’s 4% LIHTC program. Through the program, NJHMFA assists affordable housing developers by serving as a conduit of tax-exempt revenue bonds that allow equity investors to finance development efforts.

"We enter the marketplace with a strong developer that brings along credit enhancements," Marchetta explains. "It can be in the form of insurance or a guarantee of payment of bonds. We alone get a strong AA rating as an agency, but when you add the developer’s credit enhancement, we get the equivalent of an AAA rating on our bonds. Because of these improved credit ratings, developers are able to reduce costs to build more properties and units.  The program effectively lowers the interest rate and the project’s debt service," the director points out. 

Nine of the 21 reservations are for projects utilizing the Conduit Bond process, while the remaining projects are anticipating the Agency’s direct lending program.  Ninety-eight percent of the total 2,715 units will be affordable.  The projects are located throughout the state.