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MEMORANDUM:

TO:Tax Credit and Multifamily Bond Partners

FROM:Ted R. Fellman

DATE:March 6, 2009

SUBJECT:Open Forum to Discuss Housing Credit Relief Provisions

As all of you know we are operating under unprecedented circumstances with the housing credit and multifamily bond programs. THDA staff has attempted to be responsive to our partners during the past six months to adjust our programs to provide needed relief, with mixed reviews. Now the federal government has passed landmark legislation that will provide extraordinary relief to the development and rehabilitation of affordable rental housing. It is imperative that we develop a plan to allocate these resources that provides the needed relief to our partners while at the same time maintains the intent of Congress and maximizes the benefit to the State of Tennessee.

I have become very concerned about the tone of communication that has occurred between our partners and THDA staff over the past few weeks. There have been statements that we are “hiding behind rules and regulations”, that our partners are afraid to ask us questions for fear of retribution, etc. We take a lot of pride in our customer service and apparently some of you are not satisfied with how we are administering these programs. At the same time we are having difficulty with our work because we don’t seem to be able to get accurate information – folks are making assumptions about the relief bills and therefore providing information that on the surface is questionable.

With all this in mind, we are hosting an open forum on March 11 at 1:30pm in THDA’s offices to try and accomplish two goals: 1) to clear the air on some issues and 2) to work together to develop a viable solution to the current crisis involving our tax credit and bond deals.

It is my hope that we can come out of this meeting with a clearer understanding of THDA’s philosophy and role in administering these programs as well as a clearer understanding of the current market for housing credits and the situation we are dealing with. It is very important to me and our staff that we have a positive and productive working relationship with our partners.

I hope you can attend this meeting in person. We can try to have phone access available. If you need this please contact Ed Yandell and let him know. He can be reached via e-mail at or by phone at 615-815-2142. If you cannot do either but have comments or suggestions please forward those to Ed before the meeting.

Thank you.

Revised Date