The 2026 Fall Symposium brought developers, syndicators, lenders, and OHFA staff together at the Conference Center at OCLC. It was a day filled with networking (lots and lots of networking!), discussion about both the challenges facing the industry and some reasons to be optimistic, practical ways to reduce operating costs when energy costs are increasing faster than the rate of inflation, and lots of time with our partners at OHFA…not to mention one heck of a rainstorm. For the 140-plus of you who were in attendance, here’s a recap; for those of you who weren’t able to join us, here's what you missed.

The Presidents' Panel: Moderated by Catherine Cawthon, OHC Vice President (and President-in-Waiting)

OHC presidents—past, present, and future—gathered to talk about why they are optimistic about the industry and what keeps them up at night. Joining Catherine on the panel were Amy Albery (Wallick Communities; current OHC president: 2026-2028), Ian Maute (Buckeye Community Hope Foundation; 2018-2020), Brian McGeady (Pivotal Housing Partners; 2011-2012), and Kevin Nowak (CHN Housing Partners; 2024-2026).

First the good: the state has been willing to keep adding tools, including the Ohio LIHTC, Multifamily Lending Program (MLP), and Transformational Mixed-Use Development Program (TMUD); housing is now a bipartisan conversation about how, not whether, as evidenced by the recently-enacted 21^st Century ROAD to Housing Act which is the biggest federal housing legislation in decades; this is a resilient group that got through 2009, 2016 tax reform, and COVID, and it will get through this too.

Then the sleepless nights:

• Uncertainty. Federal agency turnover, slower HUD and USDA closings, and staff who started working on a deal may not be there at the end.
• Site scarcity. Current QAP scoring pushes developers into a very small number of census tracts around the state which is leading to significant increases in the cost of land.
• Thin margins. Covid-era inflation never came back down, rates haven't contracted, and equity pricing is down. Winning an award used to mean high-fives; now it means "roll up your sleeves” and figure out how to make the deal work.
• Seniors with nowhere to go. Older homeowners are house-rich, cash-poor, and stuck because the next step down doesn't exist. Ray of hope: a Northeast Ohio effort to create a nonprofit clearinghouse that would buy those homes and help seniors move.
• Lost government capacity. Experienced public staff who understood the system have retired, and closings and environmental reviews have slowed as a result (OHFA is a notable exception to this rule!)

When it comes to OHC, why they’ve committed so much time to the organization, and why it is effective, the common thread was consensus. OHC works because it takes up issues the whole industry can agree on and speaks with one voice. When it does, OHFA and the legislature listen.

The LIHTC Market: Moderated by Joey Hague, OHC Events Committee Chair

Ryan Rosoff (Enterprise), Drew Foster (Huntington), Mary Ann Lang (OCCH), and Kristen Senff (National Equity Fund) agreed on the main point: 2027 looks like more of the same. There is an argument that this is good news. Over the last several years, forecasts in the fall for the following year have looked a little worse than the current one. We may have finally found the bottom!

• The supply problem is real. Federal and state action created a lot more credits. Investors haven't left, but there aren't enough of them to absorb all the new credits. The GSEs committed an extra $2 billion each, but that capital hasn't shown up yet.
• Pricing is spread very wide. Deals are closing anywhere from the low 70s to the mid 90s. CRA-driven demand in strong markets is holding up. Deals that depend on economic investors have taken most of the hit, and a 10-year Treasury above 5% could push investor yield hurdles higher. And not all CRA is the same: Huntington and some other banks care more about price per credit than about yield.
• Investors are driving deal structure. Equity is now commonly tied to the construction loan and often to the whole capital stack. Before you apply for AHP, talk to your syndicator. If the construction loan goes to someone else, you may have trouble finding equity.
• Sponsor credit is under much closer review. Plan on 5% of total development cost in liquidity and 25% in net worth. Syndicators will also look at maxed-out lines of credit and non-LIHTC product lines. Send your audit and a clean REO schedule up front, and explain any troubled properties before you're asked. Enterprise and AHIC both publish REO templates. And yes, every panelist has required an additional partner to strengthen sponsor credit.
• Policy headwinds: FHFA's proposed Duty to Serve changes, and an OCC/FDIC proposal to raise the "large bank" CRA threshold. Mary Ann noted that raising the threshold would hit rural deals and smaller regional banks the hardest. Comments are due in early October. The PWI cap increase from 15% to 20% probably won't move much capital.
• A bright spot: With the renewable energy credits phasing out, Huntington's treasury team expects its own appetite for LIHTC investment to grow from 2028 on. Other banks that invested heavily in renewables will need a replacement too.
• OLIHTC: State credit pricing has settled around the mid-50s, but the panel stressed that it has to be evaluated alongside the federal pricing. A strong state credit price doesn't help much if the federal price drops to make up for it.

Guest Remarks: Former State Rep. Jay Edwards, Candidate for State Treasurer

Introduced by Jeff Woda, former House Finance Chair Jay Edwards gave a preview of what he would like to do as the State Treasurer based on a simple premise: the state treasury has a lot of money that has to sit somewhere, so why not use it to help get housing built? His white paper lays out seven proposals. They include a housing linked-deposit program, credit enhancement modeled on the state's existing Capital Access Program, a permanent loan pool, a $50 million revolving LIHTC bridge loan fund, infrastructure bonds to turn empty fields into buildable sites, a public-private affordable housing investment fund, and a developer track within the existing Homebuyer Plus program. He described the first three as close relatives of programs the office already runs. The bond and investment fund ideas would need legislation.

State Legislative Update: Ryan Gleason (OHC) and Brian Hicks (Hicks Partners)

• The races: The governor's race between Vivek Ramaswamy and Amy Acton is a dead heat, with no debate scheduled that could shift it. Brown vs. Husted is one of the most competitive Senate races in the country and could approach three-quarters of a billion dollars in spending.
• The General Assembly: Republicans will keep their majorities in the Statehouse. The question is whether they keep enough seats to override vetoes without Democratic votes (60 in the House, 20 in the Senate). That matters a lot if Acton wins. House leadership stays the same. The Senate gets a new president in Bill Reineke, and it's still unclear whether Jerry Cirino stays on as Finance chair.
• OLIHTC: OHC's proposal would rename it the Affordable Housing Tax Credit, allow rural preservation, let OHFA award up to 130% state credit on rural deals, and adopt a real rural definition developed with OHFA's data team. OHC will push hard for extension in lame duck, but there’s a risk that legislators say, "Bring it back in the budget." The credit expires June 30, 2027. Waiting until the budget means six months of uncertainty for deals and forces OHFA to pause work on the next round. The Ohio Chamber, Business Roundtable, and Bankers League are helping lead the effort.
• The budget: OBM has told agencies to prepare status-quo budgets. OHC is making the case that the status quo includes OLIHTC. Because there's a new governor, the budget proposal isn't due until early March, which leaves the House and Senate a shorter window before the June 30 deadline to pass a budget.
• What else is coming: Opposition to data centers is growing. Brian noted that the same organized NIMBY playbook shows up against affordable housing, energy projects, and highway interchanges. Some of that opposition is homegrown, and some of it isn't.
• How we get in the room: OHC's 35-member board has formally committed to supporting the Citizens for Affordable Housing PAC for the first time. The PAC doesn't yet have enough to carry out its full plan, and the budget cycle will require a lot of time at fundraisers.

Energy Efficiency: Moderated by Tony Love

Ted Toon of the Natural Resources Defense Council presented new research from Donovan Energy on ten years of operating expense data across Ohio's five major metros. Combined utilities grew 65%, compared with 39% if you'd underwritten a 3% annual increase. Natural gas was up 81%. Multifamily insurance was up 94%. Projections for the next three years show the gap continuing to widen. His argument was that building more efficient and more resilient properties is how you protect a deal from those increases.

Molly Ekerdt of POAH walked through how the organization handles sustainability across roughly 1,100 units in Ohio. Plumbing fixture replacements alone cut water use about 50% on some Cincinnati properties, saving around $363,000 a year. POAH publishes its Basis of Design standards publicly, and Passive House buildings in its portfolio use 60-80% less energy than conventional construction. POAH also puts QR-code training videos on building equipment so maintenance staff can learn the systems even as teams turn over.

Kristen Baker of LISC Cincinnati admitted she used to be a sustainability skeptic. She now sees it as essential. LISC is using private capital, including an EQ2 (Equity Equivalent Investment) from Fifth Third, for bridge, construction, and permanent loans on high-performance projects. That includes better construction rates for all-electric buildings that perform more than 20% better than baseline standards.

OHFA Update: Matt Sutter, Barbara Richards, and the Office of Multifamily Housing

Ryan opened by acknowledging how much the OHFA relationship has changed in the 20 months since Bill Beagle and Matt Sutter took over. Nearly all of OHFA's multifamily analysts attended. Matt said the goal is to put faces to the names you email, and you can expect to see OHFA staff at more ribbon cuttings and groundbreakings.

• Consolidating guidelines. OHFA currently manages 12 sets of multifamily guidelines. Barbara acknowledged the guideline fatigue on both sides and announced a comprehensive rewrite modeled on the DAS process. It starts with roundtables at the Ohio Housing Conference in December and regional sessions in March. First drafts are expected in June 2027, with board approval targeted for September 2027 for the 2028 rounds.
• 2026 9% Additional Credits Policy. About $1 million of the $1.45 million in additional credits remains available. Projects awarded from 2022 through 2025 with financing gaps can request up to $3,000 per unit (2022-23 QAP) or $1,500 per unit (2024-25 QAP), plus up to $1 million in HDL. Applications are due October 1 to QAP@ohiohome.org.
• CHDO and BGF Guidelines: OHFA has issued the 2027 CHDO guidelines and the second draft of the Bond Gap Financing guidelines. Bond Gap will skip the proposal round and go straight to final applications in February. The required 80% drawings can come in as late as July. Jenni's note on that: she doesn't care what percentage you label your drawings. She cares whether they show everything her team has to check.
• 2027 DAS. The new DAS takes effect December 1, in time for the December 15 OLIHTC applications. Updated forms are coming in November. Jenni will answer the most common public comment questions at the Ohio Housing Conference on December 2, including why Ohio's building code doesn't require elevators in three-story buildings.
• Year 30 re-syndications. OHFA's research team built an Exiting Affordability dashboard that maps properties leaving their 30-year affordability period and shows county-level expiration rates. It also feeds into Bond Gap scoring. You can find it at ohiohome.org under Research & Analytics, then Program Dashboards. There's no single fix for re-syndications, but OHFA is open to 4%-only deals, bundling nearby properties, MLP, risk share, HDL, and restrictive covenant modifications. One note: the 2025 HOME rule doesn't automatically apply to older HOME restrictions. You'll need to work with OHFA to modify the covenant.
• Who to call. Start with your analyst, who will escalate as needed. For architectural review questions, go straight to Jenni. Barbara and Matt were both clear that bringing a problem to OHFA early won't put you on a list. As Barbara put it, there is no naughty list.

What's next: The Spring Symposium returns in April at the Statehouse. The OLIHTC extension will be front and center.

The agenda and all available presentations can be found on our 2026 Fall Symposium page.