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Fall 2016 |
News from VHDA
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VHDA's Fall Update
Susan Dewey, Executive Director of VHDA
Greetings, and a happy autumn to all of our housing partners across the Commonwealth! Here's a quick update from VHDA with some highlights from our Homeownership, Rental Housing and Community Outreach divisions - as well as some news about our Board of Commissioners. Enjoy!
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Faster Processing for MCCs
VHDA handles huge amounts of data every day, so any time we can streamline processes is a cause for celebration. The success of our Mortgage Credit Certificate (MCC) program created additional demands for our staff. By partnering with VHDA's Software Development team, we were able to create a solution to expedite the MCC Commitment process to help our lenders meet scheduled closings timelines without delays.
Working together, they created an automated transfer of data from the Mortgage Cadence loan origination system to the MCC system, reducing the time required for manual data entry. Now, instead of having to type in dozens of fields, information appears automatically, and the MCC team simply reviews it for accuracy.
This is a great time-saver, enabling us to process more MCCs faster and more efficiently for the first-time homebuyers who are counting on them
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Down Payment Assistance Update
 VHDA's Down Payment Assistance grant continues to be extremely popular. During our fiscal year 2016, almost one-third of the more than 5,000 homebuyers who received VHDA mortgages took advantage of our Down Payment Assistance grant. In addition, many of our grant recipients received a Mortgage Credit Certificate, making their home purchase even more affordable. Since grant recipients meet the MCC requirements, we encourage VHDA lenders to offer the MCC to all borrowers when applying for the grant.
Learn More
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Did You Know?
 VHDA supports Habitat for Humanity chapters in Virginia by providing all phases of loan servicing, including customer service, escrow analysis and loss mitigation. Our pro-bono servicing provides substantial savings to Habitat chapters each year, enabling them to build more affordable housing across Virginia. We also provide office space, supplies and phone service at no cost for Habitat's statewide development office. VHDA associates work with local Habitat chapters and participate in volunteer builds every year. Learn More
VHDA has helped more than 207,000 people prepare for homeownership through our free First-time Homebuyer class. The class is available in English and Spanish, in classrooms around the state or online.
Learn More
To make our affordable mortgages available in underserved areas like Southwest Virginia, the Eastern Shore, Northern Neck and Southside Virginia, where access to VHDA-approved lenders is limited, our loan originators hit the road in our Mobile Mortgage Office vans.
Learn More
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Upgrades for Senior Apartments
Representatives from VHDA, Hopewell Redevelopment & Housing Authority, Community Housing Partners and Virginia Community Development Corporation joined Mayor Brenda Pelham for a ceremony to dedicate a major upgrade for the Kippax Place senior apartments in Hopewell. This is one example of how VHDA works with our partners to improve affordable rental housing through the HUD Rental Assistance Demonstration (RAD) program. Other properties benefiting from the program include Oyster Point Place, Brighton and Cypress Terrace in Newport News; Oldtown Terrace, Pretlow Apartments and Berkley Court in Franklin.
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Housing Credits for Accessible, Supportive Housing
VHDA administers federal Housing Credits in Virginia (also known as LIHTC, or Low-Income Housing Tax Credits). These tax credits provide incentives to developers to provide affordable housing to meet critical housing needs in the state. Part of Virginia's Housing Credit allocation includes a special pool set aside for Accessible Supportive Housing, or ASH. The ASH pool is intended for developments in which at least 25 percent of units:
- Serve people with disabilities.
- Meet federal accessibility standards.
- Have a federal project-based subsidy.
Recipients are usually permanent supportive housing communities, where housing is combined with services for the residents. These communities serve vulnerable populations such as the homeless and people with physical, mental or developmental disabilities. The ASH pool is proving to be helpful in meeting Department of Justice requirements to offer more housing options to Virginians living with developmental disabilities.
VHDA's Board of Commissioners recently approved Housing Credits from the ASH pool to be awarded to five developments:
- Upper Street Apartments in Danville
- Angelwood at Westmoreland in Westmoreland County
- Carlton Neighborhood Housing in Charlottesville
- Old Forest Village in Lynchburg
- Alleghany Apartments in Clifton Forge
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Multifamily Loan Program Updates
VHDA's Rental Housing Division sends periodic updates via email to multifamily developers, property managers and others involved in multifamily development and financing. These emails are our primary method of communication with our stakeholders and include vital information, such as:
- Changes to existing programs.
- New loan programs.
- Modifications to processes and procedures.
- Changes to loan underwriting practices and policies.
To receive these email updates, just
sign up.
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Partners in Revitalization
VHDA and the Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD) have been working in partnership to address housing revitalization and community development around the state. Here are some recent examples:
- VHDA supports DHCD's Vibrant Communities Initiative (VCI). Our staff recently took part in a series of DHCD-sponsored meetings throughout Virginia to educate potential applicants about VHDA programs that complement VCI.
- We're also partnering with DHCD and officials in Pulaski to transform their historic downtown. DHCD is supporting visioning and planning, as VHDA works with a local developer to structure a mixed-use/mixed-income approach to the revitalization efforts.
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Putting Our Money Where Our Mission Is
The REACH Virginia fund was created by VHDA more than 10 years ago to help address Virginia's most critical housing needs, and we are now contributing 40 percent of our net revenues into this fund. It's the financial foundation for many of our programs - providing grants to housing counselors, revitalizing communities, making homes more accessible, helping first-time homebuyers with the down payment, increasing capacity for our nonprofit partners, addressing homelessness, and so much more.
Here are two examples of grants we administer, which are made possible by the REACH Virginia fund:
- VHDA's Community Impact Grant helps promote large-scale housing and revitalization efforts at the local level. We recently awarded a grant to Piedmont Housing Alliance to support the planned transformation of the Friendship Court rental community in Charlottesville into a mixed-use/mixed-income community. This grant program is also helping the Northern Shenandoah Valley Regional Commission conduct a regional housing analysis, as they plan ways to address affordable housing needs in the area.
- VHDA's Capacity Building Grant helps Virginia nonprofits and local governments increase their capacity to create, preserve and manage affordable housing, bring new housing services to underserved areas, implement community revitalization projects, set up or strengthen local/regional collaborations and support critical housing policies, such as ending veteran homelessness. We recently launched an online application process for this grant.
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NCSHA Awards
VHDA was presented with two awards at the 2016 Annual Conference & Showplace of the National Council of State Housing Agencies (NCSHA). One was in the category of Creative Media, for our animated video, MCCs Made Simple. The other was in the category of Management Innovation, for our Rapid Rental Loan Refinancing & Retention program.
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Board Updates
We are pleased to announce that Governor McAuliffe has made three appointments to our Board of Commissioners to fill current vacancies:
- Clarissa McAdoo Cannion of Suffolk, former Executive Director, Suffolk Redevelopment and Housing Authority
- Thomas A. Gibson, PMP, LEED AP BD+C of Arlington, Project Director, Winn Development and 1st LT USMCR
- David E. Ramos of Fairfax, Vice President / Regional Multicultural Banking Officer, BB&T Bank
We bid farewell to
Doug Fahl, Margie Leon and
Dick Ashe. We wish them well in their new endeavors, and appreciate the wonderful service they have provided to our board.
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News from Housing Virginia
Housing Virginia is a partnership of organizations and people working to help ensure that all Virginians have access to quality, affordable housing. VHDA's Executive Director, Susan Dewey, is one of the founders of Housing Virginia and an active board member.
Learn more on Housing Virginia's website
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Stay in Touch With VHDA
Can't wait for our next newsletter? Subscribe to our BLOG and use the links below to keep up with VHDA on social media.
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The information contained herein (including but not limited to any description of VHDA and its lending programs and products, eligibility criteria, interest rates, fees and all other loan terms) is subject to change without notice.
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