Conference Explores Financing Alternatives for Low-Income Housing

Business Wire, Oct 8, 1998

Daisy Stiner, Acting Executive Director, Texas Department of

Housing and Community Affairs is Keynote Speaker

SAN ANTONIO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 8, 1998--A one-day conference to explore alternative financing sources available for the affordable housing developer was held in San Antonio Thursday at the Plaza San Antonio Hotel.

Co-sponsored by the international law firm of Fulbright & Jaworski L.L.P. and the national accounting firm of Altschuler, Melvoin & Glasser LLP, the seminar focused on current issues relating to Housing Tax Credits and the Allocation Process.

The event's keynote speaker was Daisy Stiner, Acting Executive Director, Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs.

Other seminar speakers included attorneys and accountants from Fulbright & Jaworski and Altschuler, Melvoin & Glasser, a representative from the Texas Bond Review Board, a bond underwriter, a commercial lender and a housing credit syndicator, who explained the various tax credit programs and alternative financing sources for affordable housing, particularly tax-exempt bond financing.

Citing the importance of the Federal Low Income Housing Tax Credit, Stiner explained, "The housing tax credit program differs markedly from traditional government housing programs by helping to stimulate the private sector investment and ownership of affordable housing.

"By partnering with both private sector for-profit and non-profit organizations, we can provide opportunities for working families to find quality affordable housing."

Sid Grossfeld, Altschuler, Melvoin & Glasser's national director for affordable housing, added, "In order to keep up with the growing number of families requiring affordable housing, the LIHTC must not only be maintained, it must be expanded and capped for future inflation."

Other speakers at the event focused on alternative financing methods involving the LIHTC. "Affordable housing developers are generally familiar with the 9% tax credit program for new residential property, which requires an increasingly rare and precious tax credit allocation from the state housing agency," said Richard Kornblith, head of Fulbright & Jaworski's tax practice in Los Angeles.

"In addition, a developer who chooses to use this 9% tax credit is precluded from combining that credit with other federally-sourced subsidies such as below-market-rate loans for the financing of his project. Many developers, however, are unaware that a 4% tax credit is available that, when used in combination with tax-exempt municipal bond project financing, requires no tax credit allocation from the state agency," Kornblith continued.

"Today's seminar is for anyone who has suffered the frustration of applying for tax credit allocation when none was to be had, or who has heard that municipal financing is an alternative, but feels unfamiliar with the process of obtaining such financing, or who would like to learn more about using other federal programs in tandem with tax credits and bonds."

Fulbright & Jaworski L.L.P. is a full-service international law firm with nearly 80 years of experience in providing sophisticated representation to corporate and public clients including municipal bond financing and tax credit syndication for affordable housing. It has the fifth largest bond counsel practice in the nation, complemented by an active tax credit syndication practice.

With nine offices across the country and in London and Hong Kong, Fulbright & Jaworski L.L.P. provides a full range of legal services for complex real estate, tax and financial market matters, as well as representation in corporate, litigation, securities, environmental, bankruptcy, intellectual property and all other areas of commercial law.

Founded 75 years ago, Altschuler, Melvoin and Glasser LLP has grown to become one of the 15 largest accounting firms in the country, with offices in major U.S. cities and internationally through an affiliation with Summit International. The firm's National Real Estate Group is recognized as one of the country's premier real estate advisory organizations, offering audit, tax, due diligence and other counsel to all parties in the real estate industry.