OHFA Annual Plan - Ohio Housing Finance Agency

Primary Recommendations• Create a permanent source of funds for operational subsidies to target lower incomes,specifically for households at or below 30 percent of area AMGI. Many individualswith special needs are either homeless or at-risk of homelessness due to severely lowincomes. No subsidy exists to address this issue and bridge the gaps necessary to makelow-income units (LIHTC specifically) affordable.• Develop a coordinated plan for the collection and analysis of data relating to specialneeds populations. No single source for data collection and evaluation exists. Data thatdoes exit works in a competitive framework between competing constituencies withinthe special needs community.• Improve the budgetary requirements and evaluation procedures used to developunderwrite and approve of supportive service packages for LIHTC and other unitsdeveloped through OHFA programs. Currently OHFA sets a minimum supportive servicebudget of $100 per unit on LIHTC projects with limited subjective review of the qualityof supportive service packages. Increase scrutiny of and required financing for theseservices will increase the success of the units created through these programs.• Increase the number of units developed through new programs. While the currenteconomic often creates a need for economies of scale, many existing special needsunits are scattered or in smaller unit projects. OHFA should encourage the developmentof products that work to address these needs on a smaller scale.89