Overview
Alabama Housing Finance Authority
Maynard Nexsen has served for more than thirteen years as general outside counsel to the Alabama Housing Finance Authority, a public corporation and instrumentality of the State of Alabama that supports and finances safe, sanitary and affordable housing for citizens with low to moderate income. The Authority is charged with administering the State of Alabama's annual allocation of low-income housing tax credits from the United States Department of the Treasury and the State’s annual allocation of funding from the HOME Investments Partnership Program administered by the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development.
Our Affordable Housing Group works extensively with the Authority in its administration of these programs, including the development of its allocation plans, the required public notice and comment process, the scoring and allocations process, general issues of program compliance, and the closing of HOME Program loans. Our firm also serves as counsel to the Authority with respect to its single-family and multi-family bond issues, which are used to provide affordable residential mortgages, to fund a variety of programs that promote home ownership and to provide financing for affordable multi-family developments throughout Alabama.
Construction and Permanent Financing
Maynard Nexsen serves as counsel to a number of banks in providing construction and permanent financing for the development of affordable housing projects throughout the United States. Our lending clients serve a variety of roles in this industry, and we represent them in making only construction loans, making only permanent loans, or providing comprehensive credit facilities that convert from construction to permanent financing upon satisfaction of appropriate conditions. Affordable housing developments typically involve secondary or subordinate financing from various state or local housing agencies, grants from federal or state programs, equity investments from private investors, or some combination of these funding sources. Our firm is experienced in negotiating and structuring the financing for affordable housing projects in a manner that fully protects secured lenders but also preserves the intended benefits for all members of the development team.
Equity Investment
Maynard Nexsen represents investors in connection with equity investments in affordable housing developments, most of which involve the purchase of low-income housing tax credits under Section 42 of the Internal Revenue Code. Our Affordable Housing Group is familiar with the issues that are important to investors, and we can provide the advice and counsel necessary to ensure proper terms, establish appropriate covenant structures, and provide the remedial rights that may be needed to protect the investment.
Depth and Experience When It Counts
Like many areas of the economy, the affordable housing industry has experienced financial setbacks in recent years. Maynard Nexsen’s Affordable Housing Group works in concert with the firm’s practice groups in real estate, creditors' rights, and bankruptcy to provide comprehensive representation in connection with projects that encounter financial stress. We have extensive experience with respect to these issues and can customize our team and the scope of our representation to align with the client’s objectives, whether it involves merely renegotiating broken covenants, restructuring the entire financing, exercising available remedies, and if necessary, protecting a client’s rights in a bankruptcy proceeding.