As cutbacks in operating and capital funding have threatened the viability of conventional public housing, public housing authorities and their partners across the country have sought to develop alternate structures of support for their affordable housing operations.
Klein Hornig attorneys are knowledgeable and experienced in the repositioning and revitalization of public housing communities. As the first Deputy Assistant Secretary of HUD for Public Housing Investments, Chris Hornig helped create and shape all the various HUD rules impacting HOPE VI, mixed-finance public housing and “the reinvention of public housing.” Over decades, Klein Hornig attorneys have enabled the redevelopment of tens of thousands of units of public housing across the country.
Part of Klein Hornig’s strength lies in its decision to represent both public housing authorities (PHA) and developers in the public housing revitalization arena. Our perspective as both PHA and developer counsel allows us to offer each client a full package of structuring, tax, and regulatory expertise while crafting strategies and solutions adapted to the unique pressures and motivations that clients bring to a transaction.
Klein Hornig has been deeply involved in the evolution of the Rental Assistance Demonstration (RAD) program since its inception in 2012, and in that time has closed scores of RAD conversions ranging from in-place rehabilitation projects to multi-phase, “transfer of assistance” new construction programs utilizing multiple additional funding sources. We worked with HUD to establish workable “master lease relocation” and “delayed conversion” options for tenant relocation and/or temporary housing during conversion; we closed the first “Faircloth-to-RAD” transaction in the country; and we continue to work with our clients and with HUD to creatively expand the tools available for public housing revitalization.
Succeeding the HOPE VI program, the Choice Neighborhoods Initiative (CNI) currently powers the large-scale revitalization of public housing neighborhoods and communities. Klein Hornig attorneys have advised numerous applicants for CNI planning grants and have represented or currently represent the lead grantee and/or housing implementation entity in a very substantial proportion of the funded CNI implementation projects.
