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Waco staff recommends support for three housing tax credit applications to preserve and add affordable units
Summary
City staff recommended council support on Feb. 4 for three projects seeking housing tax credits — a 196‑unit rehab, a 104‑unit historic rehab and a 49‑unit adaptive reuse for seniors — and said resolutions of support would strengthen the projects’ TDHCA applications.
City staff briefed the Waco City Council on Feb. 4 about three applications seeking state housing tax credit points and recommended the council consider resolutions of support ahead of full applications due to the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs (TDHCA) application deadlines.
Galen Price, the director of Community Services, explained the Low Income Housing Tax Credit process, governed by Internal Revenue Code Section 42 and administered in Texas by TDHCA. Price said the program awards federal tax credits to investors and is scored competitively; local resolutions of support supply points that can be critical to a project's success.
Price presented three projects for council consideration: a rehabilitation of a 196‑unit HUD project‑based property (Nashville Church/Northcrest) at 4200 N. 19th and 2005 Stewart with an estimated project cost of about $36.3 million; rehabilitation of the historic Lofts at Waco High, a 104‑unit development with prior tax credits and an estimated cost of $23.4 million that would remain under a 40‑year affordability restriction; and an adaptive reuse project at 925 N. 18th St. converting a church to 49 senior units with an estimated cost of about $18.4 million.
Price said the preservation rehabs would retain existing affordability restrictions (HUD or prior tax‑credit affordability covenants) and that the Northcrest/Nashville Church project, currently tax‑exempt, would return to the tax rolls if rehabilitated and awarded credits (he estimated roughly $200,000 annually in property taxes would resume). He said staff recommends resolutions of support for all three projects and noted one initial applicant had withdrawn earlier in the process.
Price said staff planned to bring formal resolution items to the Feb. 18 council meeting; full TDHCA applications are due Feb. 28 with TDHCA notices of award expected in July. He noted that while resolutions add competitive points, they do not guarantee a selection.
Councilmembers expressed support for the projects, highlighting preservation of downtown housing and senior housing as priorities and praising city staff for coordinating the review process. Price said developers had already solicited community feedback and that staff had seen generally positive responses.
