Cook county affordable tax credit

[Jerry N.]

Hello,  Any private owners on here have personal experience with renovation spend and then qualifying for IHDA tax credits?  This is in Cook County, not the city, but it doesn't seem like there is an Illinois specific forum anymore.  Please comment or message.  Looking to hopefully talk with owners specifically and then eventually accountants and lawyers.  ~ Have some experience with this but quite a number of years ago and not as part of the feasibility analysis.  If there are any other forums where this might have a better audience, please also recommend.

Thanks for reading.

[Tom Shallcross]

@Jerry N. - I believe the program you are referring to is the the Cook County Affordable Housing Special Assessment Program which has two main tiers. The first tier is where you spend at least $8/sq ft of the building in rehab (so you have to spend at least 32k on a 4,000 sq ft building) and keep at least 15% of the rents affordable. The second tier is where you spend $12.50/sq ft and keep at least 35% of the units affordable. The first tier receives a 25% reduction on their assessed value and the second tier earns a 35% reduction in their assessed value. 

Below are the affordable requirements - notice it's one blanket number for all of Cook County 

Studio - $979/m

1 Bed - $1,049/m

2 Bed - $1,258/m

3 Bed - $1,454/m

4 Bed - $1,623/m

Also note that if you have subsidized rents like Section 8 they base it strictly off what the tenant pays, not the subsidized amount, making it easier to qualify. 

I've recently gone through the process and have a nice 50 slide power point from the county walking you through each step of the application process (it is too big to post in the forum) so hit me up if you have questions. Also CIC has been a huge resource for this program and helped multiple folks become aware of it in Chicago and surrounding burbs. 

Here's some additional details: https://www.cookcountyassessor.com/affordable-housing