The legislature still hasn’t passed a capital budget, which means there is still no assured money in the Housing Trust Fund to build affordable homes. This, despite the application deadline for Low Income Housing Tax Credit funding, which came and went at 5pm on January 17.

We’ve been sounding the alarm for months that without a Housing Trust Fund by this deadline, those tax credits – approximately $178 million in federal funding over 10 years – will be diverted away from housing that will help solve our state’s homelessness crisis and provide homes for the lowest income people.

We’re extremely disappointed that there is no budget yet. It would be disastrous if those homes for veterans, people with disabilities, homeless families, homeless seniors and others don’t get built because of a legislative delay.

We understand that the legislature is still working to pass a capital budget and an agreement may be imminent. If, and when that occurs, we implore the state and the Housing Finance Commission, which issues the Low Income Housing Tax Credits, to work together to fix this.