Tennessee Housing Development Agency, like most other businesses, has an established mission statement. This mission statement reminds us of the job that the Agency was created to do when it was established by the Tennessee state legislature in 1973. We are to be "the lead state agency promoting sound and affordable housing for people who need help".

Not all Tennesseans can afford the luxury of owning a home and need help in being able to rent an affordable place to live. The Multifamily and Special Programs division of THDA assists developers in creating rental housing which is affordable to those whose financial position does not yet allow them to purchase a home of their own.

The two programs which we offer developers are the Low Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) program and the Tax Exempt Multifamily Bond Authority Program. Both programs provide financial resources which enable the owners to rent to tenants whose incomes are between 50% to 60% of their local area median income as adjusted for family size. The LIHTC program requires that the rent charged will not exceed 30% of the tenant's income, as adjusted for family size.

Both programs require developers to submit applications to THDA at specific times of the year as stated in the program descriptions which are available from the Agency. The applications are successful based on the scoring criteria outlined in the program descriptions for each program. Competition to submit a successful application has become fierce in recent years as the need for affordable housing grows in Tennessee.