Department of Housing and Community Development: loans.

Existing law authorizes the Department of Housing and Community Development to make advance payments to eligible borrowers and grantees under certain loan or grant programs for housing, if the department makes specified determinations. This bill would additionally authorize the department to reduce the interest rate on any loan issued by the department to a rental housing development to as low as 0.42% per annum, or a rate determined by the department that is sufficient to cover the costs of project monitoring, as specified, if the development meets specified requirements. The bill would also authorize the department 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 most recently published applicable federal rate, and would require the additional tax credit equity generated by the change to be used for rehabilitation of the development. The bill would also authorize the department to forgive an amount of accrued interest 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 bill would also require the department to charge a fee sufficient to cover administrative costs associated with a loan modification requested by a borrower.