Board assigns $4.094 million in private-activity bond cap to CHFA for local affordable-housing programs

Garfield County commissioners on Sept. 8 voted to assign the county’s 2025 private-activity bond allocation — $4,094,305 — to the Colorado Housing and Finance Authority (CHFA). Staff and a CHFA representative said the transfer keeps the resource available for Garfield County buyers and rental projects rather than allowing the allocation to return to the state pool.

CHFA staff explained the private-activity bond allocation is a federal tax-exempt borrowing authority distributed to Colorado counties by population. When assigned to CHFA, the authority can be used to lower the borrowing cost for first-time and moderate-income homebuyers, and in some cases it supports multifamily projects by pairing tax-exempt bonds with federal low-income housing tax credits.

County staff noted prior transfers to CHFA have supported first-time homebuyer loans and helped finance projects such as an 80-unit multifamily development in Parachute (Canyon Vista). CHFA said since 2020 its use of transferred allocation helped 154 households in Garfield County access financing.

Commissioners approved option 3 from staff’s memo — assigning the county’s volume cap to CHFA for local programs — and directed staff to return an assignment agreement for signature on the consent calendar.

What’s next: county attorney’s office and CHFA will prepare required allocation assignment documents and staff will place them on an upcoming consent agenda for the county chair’s signature.