VHFA opens $59 million in housing subsidies, including a second 9% tax-credit round
The Vermont State House in Montpelier. The Vermont Housing Finance Agency, a state-created housing financier, opened a new subsidy round on Nov. 3. Photo: Harrison Keely, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
The Vermont Housing Finance Agency on Nov. 3 opened the door to about $59 million in public subsidies for affordable rental and homeownership projects, including a second 2026 round of federal 9% Low-Income Housing Tax Credits after earlier awards came back unused.
In a Nov. 3 announcement, the agency said rental developers can seek up to $30 million in 9% tax-credit equity and up to $16 million from the Rental Revolving Loan Fund. For homeownership, it listed up to $6 million in Vermont State Homeownership Tax Credit equity and up to $6.6 million from the Middle-Income Homeownership Development Program. Pre-applications for rental programs opened Nov. 9 and are due Dec. 7, with full applications due Feb. 1, 2027, and board action expected March 11. Homeownership pre-applications open Dec. 1 and are due Dec. 31, with full applications due March 1, 2027, and board action April 15.
The agency said this is its second 9% credit round of 2026, opened after “the return or rescission of a significant amount of 9% tax credits previously awarded to projects which are unable to meet the placed-in-service deadlines for prior awards.” Moving the credits back out now, VHFA said, is meant to meet federal allocation deadlines and keep the resource from being lost to the state. It expects another competitive 9% round in 2027, with applications due in the fall rather than the spring cycle the agency has used recently.
That later timing, the announcement said, is tied to a Qualified Allocation Plan that took effect Oct. 1, 2026, and sets tighter readiness-to-proceed requirements. Holding the next round later in 2027 is intended to give developers more time to meet those tests. Sponsors thinking about the supplemental round were told to review the new plan and application materials carefully.
Application forms have also changed. VHFA said it will use the pro forma entered in its new Builders Patch software as the single source of a project’s financial information, a shift meant to cut inconsistencies with the old Common App and reduce duplicate data entry. After the Dec. 7 pre-application deadline, project sponsors will enter information through the online portal. Applicants may seek more than one program within the same housing type on a single application, but mixed rental-and-homeownership projects need separate filings for each type.
Current rental materials are posted on the agency’s housing credit pre-application page. Updated homeownership materials are scheduled to go up on or before Dec. 1. Questions can go to developmentdept@vhfa.org.
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