Compliance wants to ensure that all of our partners know that after you have been issued a Compliance Audit Report (CAR), you initially have 30 days to provide corrections to the findings. If you need additional time to complete the corrections, you must do two things: actively work on the corrections and request an extension. Your request for an extension to the auditor who completed the inspection must be in writing and state the reason(s) why you are requesting the extension and what you are working on in regard to the corrections. Your request must be submitted via the OHFA Inspection system in the communications tab. If an extension is not requested, the audit will be closed out as uncorrected and 8823’s issued as applicable.

Failure to follow these instructions may result in the upload being rejected by the auditor.

In an attempt to streamline the Compliance Next Steps (CNS) meetings process, effective March 1, 2023, the compliance team will offer only two dates to hold the CNS meetings rather than providing multiple dates. Dates will be offered at a minimum of two weeks out. A response will be required within three business days of the email sent date. We have learned over the last year that offering multiple dates and waiting for responses have caused the process to slow down significantly. Please do your best to make one of the appointments work if at all possible. If there is no way to make either appointment work, please reply to the email with two alternative dates. Information on the CNS process is found here. 

On January 31, 2023, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Office of Multifamily Housing Programs published a draft of the Housing Opportunity Through Modernization Act of 2016 (HOTMA) final rule. The new final rule can be found here.

HOTMA will impact the LIHTC, HOME and National Housing Trust Fund (NHTF) programs that use HUD regulations, specifically Sections 102 and 104 of the Final Rule: 

The provisions that apply to LIHTC, HOME and NHTF will be effective starting January 1, 2024. 

More information can be found on HUD’s HOTMA webpage.

 

OHFA will issue additional guidance soon. Stay tuned!

2022 Annual Owner Reports (AORs) are due Wednesday, March 1, 2023. Owners are able to submit AORs now rather than waiting until March. Below are a few reminders to help prepare for AOR submissions:

 

OHFA will offer a free one-hour AOR webinar on February 14, 2023, at 1:00 p.m. The webinar will explain the Annual Owner Report process, including entering tenant events, dealing with errors, uploading XMLs, finalizing the reporting year, completing the Annual Owner Certification questionnaire, and submitting corrections to AOR findings.  

Part of the reporting process for LIHTC projects includes completing the Annual Operating Survey, which is available here. The survey must be completed for each project awarded tax credits between 2006–2019 (project numbers that begin with “06” and end through “19”) and has 10 or more units. Completed surveys must be submitted to 811Program@ohiohome.org no later than Wednesday, March 1, 2023. Questions regarding the Annual Operating Survey may be directed to Kevin Clark at kclark@ohiohome.org.

OHFA will continue to offer free compliance trainings this year. The trainings will be in the form of webinars and in-person trainings. You are able to register for any webinar at this time. In-person trainings registration will open soon. All webinar trainings are from 12:30–4:30 p.m. In-person trainings will be held at the Columbus Main Library with the times to be announced.

The training session will fulfill OHFA's Qualified Allocation Plan (QAP) training requirement in order to obtain IRS Form 8609 and provide four hours of continuing education credit for Specialist in Housing Credit Management (SHCM), Housing Credit Certified Professional (HCCP),National Compliance Professional (NCP), and National Compliance Professional-Executive (NCP-E) designations.

The training session will provide three hours of continuing education credit for the Specialist in Housing Credit Management (SHCM).

The training session will fulfill OHFA's QAP training requirement in order to obtain IRS Form 8609 and provide four hours per training (total of eight hours for both webinars) of continuing education credit for SHCM and HCCP certifications.

Be sure to visit the Training and Technical Assistance webpage for all future training dates and resources.