More than 450 affordable Connecticut homes to be built with state tax credits

# What happened Authority (CHFA) awarded roughly $10.4 million in State Housing Tax Credit Contribution (HTCC) funds to 24 nonprofit developers. The awards will support the creation, preservation, or rehabilitation of more than 450 affordable homes and apartments across 15 municipalities, including Bridgeport, Norwalk, Sharon, and Middletown.

# Why it matters Connecticut faces a large affordable housing shortfall. State-level studies estimate the need for about 100,000 more affordable units. HTCC is one of the state's flexible financing tools that supports smaller, specialized, or harder-to-finance projects that might not qualify for larger programs.

# How the program works HTCC was established in 1987 and CHFA allocates up to $10 million in state tax credits annually to nonprofit developers building very low-, low-, and moderate-income housing. The program has helped create, preserve, or rehabilitate more than 12,000 units since 2010. Typical uses include:

• Rehabilitating historic buildings
• Constructing new homes and multifamily units
• housing

• Providing downpayment assistance programs

Award recipients must file quarterly reports to CHFA to document proper use of the funds.

# This funding round

Eversource is cited as a typical lead investor whose equity investments help nonprofits move projects into construction. Once nonprofits receive investor equity, projects should advance more quickly.

# Types of projects and local impact

• Several rehabilitations of existing or historic sites
• New construction of apartments and homes
• Programs that provide downpayment assistance to prospective homeowners
• Six supportive housing units spread across Norwalk and Middletown to help formerly homeless residents transition to stable housing

The mix is intended to target housing types that the HTCC program uniquely supports—projects that may fall outside typical financing streams.

# Demand and constraints Requests for HTCC funding exceeded the available allocation. CHFA noted that more money has been requested in recent years, and last year required two application rounds to spend the annual allocation. This year, CHFA funded fewer applications than applied because of the funding cap.

# What to expect next

# Bottom line This HTCC award round deploys a modest but targeted pool of state tax-credit funds to a diverse set of nonprofit housing projects across Connecticut. The funding supports a range of housing solutions—new builds, rehabilitations, homeownership assistance, and supportive housing—but demand for such flexible financing still outstrips available state tax-credit resources.