Affordable Housing Projects In Opportunity Zones To Get Preference For HUD Benefits Says Ben Carson

Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Dr. Ben Carson stated in a March 12th interview with The Real Deal that Affordable Housing Projects in Opportunity Zones will be subject to preferential treatment via additional HUD incentives. The article acknowledges that the agency cannot mandate that specific development projects are built as affordable housing. Very much in -line with the core tenets of federal opportunity zones, developers will find increased incentives for building community based projects that fall in line with HUD requirements.

With the prospect of additional local municipal incentives, QOZ’s are seeing many additional incentive opportunities on top of the incredible high level benefits provided by the Qualified Opportunity Zone program itself. For example, Charleston city has proposed and may possibly approve in upcoming weeks increased density and reduced parking incentives in additions to permit “fast tracking” for Charleston City QOZ projects. The idea of federal and local incentives makes it very important for Qualified Opportunity Funds (QOF) to be working with local partners familiar with the local incentives in the QOZ tracts they are planning to invest.

Dr. Ben Carson also stated that he is now interested in remaining in his position for another 4 years should the opportunity present itself. This is contrary to previous sentiment that he would return to the private sector.

Read the Full Article from REAL Deal HERE