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At the forefront. We are proud of our long history of contributions to the development of affordable housing finance in the United States. The use of public finance structures for multifamily housing essentially began with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban development (“HUD”) Section 23 leased housing program in the late 1960s. We participated in the development of the tax-exempt financing structure for that program and served as bond counsel for at least 84 financings in 19 states. In the mid 1970s, John Peck and John Anderson met with HUD officials and other interested parties in Washington to create a financing vehicle for the Section 8 assistance program and played a major role in developing the concept for the Section 11(b) financing program and writing the original regulations. From the late 1970s through the mid 1980s, Peck Shaffer served as bond counsel for hundreds of such financings in more than 30 states, helping to meet the affordable housing needs of large cities such as Chicago and Boston, as well as many small communities such as Coleman, Texas and Tell City, Indiana.
Drawing on the relationships we developed across the country with investment bankers, housing authority and other public officials, developers and HUD personnel in Washington and in local offices, we have continued our tradition of being at the forefront in the development and practice of public finance for housing transactions through serving as public finance counsel (bond counsel, underwriter’s counsel or transactional counsel to other participants) on the wide range of financings that have evolved over the years.
Vast experience. Peck Shaffer attorneys possess a vast amount of practical experience and institutional knowledge from many years of working with the programs, the institutions and the people across the country involved in the housing finance industry. We have served as Bond Counsel or underwriter’s counsel (see "UNDERWRITER'S COUNSEL") for multifamily housing issues in almost every state, and have been involved in every type of credit enhancement and sophisticated structure in the multifamily housing area. Our experience in structuring, documenting and successfully closing transactions includes almost all varieties of facilities and programs, credit enhancement and structures including those listed below.
Rural housing finance. The United States Department of Agriculture (“USDA”) Section 538 Guaranteed Rural Rental Housing Program was enacted in 1996. The 538 Program is administered by USDA’s Rural Housing Service. Until 2002, relatively few projects were financed using the 538 Program. The only bonds issued in connection with the 538 Program were non-rated, bank eligible issues that were placed directly with banks. Peck Shaffer was engaged in 2001 to create a financing structure using the USDA guarantee as credit enhancement for a publicly offered tax-exempt bond issue. PSW closed the first such tax-exempt bond issue in the fall of 2002, and continues to use this financing structure.
Taxable housing financings using public finance techniques. The public finance techniques and structures being utilized for housing financings have become very sophisticated. Housing projects that do not qualify for, or choose to avoid, tax-exempt financing may be financed with taxable obligations, utilizing some of the techniques and structures that are borrowed from the tax exempt public finance models. Candidates include projects seeking the 9% low income housing tax credits, projects seeking to avoid the low-income set-aside requirements or other requirements for tax-exempt financing, financings for which there is no qualified or available governmental issuer and projects with costs or guarantees that would disqualify them for tax-exempt financing. Taxable bonds or notes may be issued by a governmental entity (an advantage if state tax exemption is available or to qualify for exemption from certain SEC registration requirements), the borrowing entity, or a specially created private entity. Due to the absence of federal taxation issues, these are generally simpler transactions to structure and should be considered as an alternative mechanism. For many taxable financings, the method of offering the bonds for sale may need to be limited to comply with applicable federal and state securities law requirements.