Section 50406.7 Of Chapter 1. Organization Of The Department And General Powers From California Health And Safety Code >> Division 31. >> Part 2. >> Chapter 1.
50406.7
. (a) Notwithstanding any other law, the department is
authorized to reduce the interest rate on any loan issued by the
department to a rental housing development to as low as forty-two
hundredths of 1 percent per annum, or a rate determined by the
department that is sufficient to cover the costs of project
monitoring described in subdivision (c) of Section 50675.6, whichever
is greater, if the development meets all of the following
requirements:
(1) The development has no other debt with regularly scheduled or
amortizing debt service payments. The department reserves the right
to impose a default interest rate of 3 percent should amortizing debt
be placed on the project.
(2) The development will utilize low-income housing tax credits.
(3) The sponsor determines that the loan issued by the department
is not eligible to be treated as debt for federal or state low-income
housing tax credit purposes without a reduction in the interest rate
of the loan. The determination must be acceptable to the department.
The department may contract with a third-party tax professional for
verification, the cost of which shall be borne by the sponsor.
(4) The development has no debt in a senior lien position to the
department's debt.
(5) The development has 35 percent or more of the total units in
the project serving households with income not exceeding 30 percent
of the area median income.
(6) The new department loan shall not be used to supplant or
replace an existing department loan.
(b) The department is authorized to change the current interest
rate for any loan for which it receives a loan extension request
associated with an award of federal or state low-income housing tax
credits made on or after January 1, 2014, to the applicable federal
rate most recently published by the United States Internal Revenue
Service. The additional tax credit equity generated by the change in
interest rate shall be used for rehabilitation of the development. If
the total amount of debt and accrued interest at the end of the loan
term would be greater after making this change than it would have
been under the original interest rate, the department may forgive an
amount of accrued interest equal to the lesser of either the amount
necessary to make the expected principal and accrued interest the
same as it would have been using the original interest rate, or the
total amount of interest accrued at the time of the sponsor's
request.
(c) The department shall charge a fee in an amount sufficient to
cover administrative costs associated with a loan modification
requested by a borrower pursuant to this section.