At a conference for Arizona affordable housing and homeless services organizations Wednesday, Gov. Katie Hobbs expressed concerns over the future of the state’s affordable housing tax credit program.
The tax credits were established in 2021. The state-level program is modeled after the federal low-income housing tax credit program – developers compete for the tax credits, which they can sell to financial institutions to help fund affordable housing projects.
“So far [Arizona’s tax credit program] has funded over 1,600 affordable housing units in the state. It is such critical gap funding to get the financing in place for these projects to happen,” Hobbs told attendees of the Arizona Housing Coalition conference.
But without legislative action, Arizona’s version of the affordable housing tax credit program is set to expire at the end of this year.
State budget negotiations are ongoing. Hobbs, a Democrat, said she is pushing the Republican-majority Legislature to agree to making the tax credit program permanent in Arizona.
“This was proposed in my budget proposal. It’s going to take a lot of advocacy to get this over the finish line,” Hobbs said.
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