RHS Chief Sees More Transfers To Preserve Affordable Housing

摘要

Rural Housing Service (RHS) Administrator Russell Davis said he expects an increase in the transfer of Section 515 properties to organizations that would retain them as affordable rental housing as a way to address the concerns of owners who want to prepay their mortgages and leave the program. RHS is expecting loans on Section 515 projects with a total of 2,704 units to be prepaid in fiscal 2004, which ends September 30, Davis said in an interview with HDR. He confirmed a Housing Assistance Council (HAC) report that 1, 878 units were prepaid during the first three quarters of 2004, compared with 1,848 units prepaid in all of fiscal 2003. Of the units expected to be prepaid this year, 1,397, or 52 percent, have Section 8 subsidies, so there is no im-pact on the low-income tenants, Davis said. "For the other prepaying units, we'll be dealing with those with a number of other mechanisms," he added. "In the future we will be dealing with these things with transfers and other tools that we expect to develop." RHS has been working with the Treasury Department and other agencies on the issue of exit tax relief for Section 515 owners who wish to prepay, and there will be a single policy from the Administration, Davis said. "We hope that as soon as possible, we can discuss something publicly about that," he said.