Developers who want to build or preserve affordable rental housing in Vermont have until Dec. 7, 2026, to pre-apply for up to $30 million in federal tax credits from the Vermont Housing Finance Agency. The agency opened pre-applications Nov. 9 for the credits, known as 9 percent Low-Income Housing Tax Credits, plus money from its Rental Revolving Loan Fund.
The round exists because credits already awarded came back. The agency says it is a supplemental round responding to the return or rescission of a significant amount of credits awarded to projects that could not meet their placed-in-service deadlines. It does not say how much was returned or which projects returned it. It says opening a round now lets Vermont meet its federal allocation deadlines so the credits are not lost to the state.
The agency announced the funding rounds on Nov. 3, saying $59 million in public subsidies is available for affordable housing across rental and homeownership programs. The rental credits are a 10-year federal credit worth $3 million a year, or $30 million in all. The agency's two pages give different amounts for the Rental Revolving Loan Fund: $16 million in the announcement and $13.8 million on its request-for-proposals page.
Homeownership money
For homeownership development, the agency lists up to $6 million in Vermont State Homeownership Tax Credit equity and up to $6.6 million from the Middle-Income Homeownership Development Program. Those applications follow a later schedule.
Schedule
According to the agency's request for proposals, the two tracks are staggered:
Rental housing: pre-applications open Nov. 9 and are due Dec. 7, 2026; full applications are due Feb. 1, 2027; board action is scheduled for March 11, 2027.
Homeownership development: pre-applications open Dec. 1 and are due Dec. 31, 2026; full applications are due March 1, 2027; board action is scheduled for April 15, 2027.
Applications that arrive after the full-application deadlines will not be considered in this round. Staff will score and rank applications and recommend awards to the board of commissioners, which may adopt resolutions authorizing them.
What comes after this round
The agency expects another competitive 9 percent round in 2027, but with applications due in fall 2027 rather than its recent spring award cycle. It says the current qualified allocation plan, its rulebook for scoring awards, sets stricter readiness-to-proceed requirements, and the later round gives developers more time to meet them. A project that misses the Dec. 7 pre-application deadline will not be considered in this round. Details will be posted at least 90 days before any deadline.
Applicants will use a new proforma format, a project's financial projection, entered in the agency's Builders Patch software, which the agency says is meant to streamline the process and reduce duplicate data entry. Developers will enter project information in the online portal after the pre-application deadline.
