FHA Expands Multifamily Housing Credit Loan Program

HUD recently announced plans to expand both the geographic scope and the lending industry’s participation in the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) to test an accelerated FHA insurance approval process for Housing Credit development loans under the FHA’s Section 223(f) program. HUD launched the pilot in response to a provision in the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008 (HERA) requiring FHA to streamline mortgage insurance applications for developments financed with Housing Credit equity.

The initial phase of the pilot was launched through HUD’s multifamily offices, or hubs, in Boston, Chicago, Detroit, and Los Angeles. The program is now being expanded to include five additional hubs: Atlanta, Denver, Fort Worth, San Francisco, and Seattle. According to the announcement, “the geographic reach of the Pilot Program will now include the entire country, so that projects from all states will be eligible. Projects that are not located in the jurisdictions of the nine Pilot Processing Offices listed above will be assigned at Headquarters to one of the Pilot Processing Offices for underwriting.”