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voucher by a housing authority.
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"Housing opportunity area" means a census tract where less |
than 10% of the
residents live below the poverty level, as |
defined by the United States
government and determined by the |
most recent United States census, that is
located within a |
qualified township, except for census tracts located within any |
township that is located wholly within a municipality with |
1,000,000 or more inhabitants. A census tract that is located |
within a township that is located wholly within a municipality |
with 1,000,000 or more inhabitants is considered a housing |
opportunity area if less than 12% of the residents of the |
census tract live below the poverty level.
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"Housing opportunity unit" means a dwelling unit located in |
residential
property that is located in a housing opportunity |
area, that is owned by
the applicant, and that is rented to and |
occupied by a tenant who is
participating in
a housing choice |
voucher program administered by a housing authority as of
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January 1st of the tax year for which the application is made.
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"Qualified units" means the number of housing opportunity |
units located in
the property with the limitation that no more |
than 2 units or 20% of
the total units contained within the |
property, whichever is greater, may be
considered qualified |
units. Further, no unit may be considered qualified unless
the |
property in which it is contained is in substantial compliance |
with local
building codes, and, moreover, no unit may be |
considered qualified unless it
meets the United States |
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Department of Housing and Urban Development's housing
quality
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standards as of the most recent housing authority inspection.
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"Qualified township" means a township located within a |
county with 200,000 or
more inhabitants whose tax capacity |
exceeds 80% 100% of the average tax capacity of
the county in |
which it is located, except for townships located within a |
county
with 3,000,000 or more inhabitants, where a qualified |
township means a township
whose tax capacity exceeds 115% of |
the average tax capacity of the county
except for townships |
located wholly within a municipality with 1,000,000 or
more |
inhabitants. All townships located wholly within a |
municipality with
1,000,000 or more inhabitants are considered |
qualified townships.
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"Tax capacity" means the equalized assessed value of all |
taxable real estate
located within a township or county divided |
by the total population of that
township or county.
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(c) The owner of property located within a housing |
opportunity area who has
a housing choice voucher contract with |
a housing authority may apply for a
housing opportunity area |
tax abatement by annually submitting an application to
the |
housing authority that administers the housing choice voucher |
contract. The
application must include the number of housing |
opportunity units as well as the
total number of dwelling units |
contained within the property. The owner must,
under oath, |
self-certify as to the total number of dwelling units in the
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property and must self-certify that the property is in |
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substantial compliance
with local building codes. The housing
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authority shall annually determine the number of qualified |
units located within
each property for which an application is |
made.
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The housing authority shall establish rules and procedures |
governing the
application processes and may charge an |
application fee. The county clerk may
audit the
applications to |
determine that the properties subject
to the tax abatement meet |
the requirements of this Section. The
determination of |
eligibility of a property for the housing opportunity area
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abatement shall be
made annually; however, no property may |
receive an abatement for more than 10
tax years.
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(d) The housing authority shall determine housing |
opportunity areas within
its service area and annually deliver |
to the county clerk, in a manner
determined by the county |
clerk, a list of all properties containing qualified
units |
within that service area by December 31st of the tax year for |
which the
property is eligible for abatement; the list shall |
include the number of
qualified units and the total number of |
dwelling units for each property.
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The county clerk shall deliver annually to a housing |
authority, upon
that housing authority's request, the most |
recent available equalized assessed
value for the county as a |
whole and for those taxing districts and townships so
specified |
by the requesting housing authority.
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(e) The county clerk shall abate the tax attributed to a |
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portion of the
property determined to be eligible for a housing |
opportunity area abatement.
The portion eligible for abatement |
shall be determined by reducing the
equalized assessment value |
by a percentage calculated using the following
formula: 19% of |
the equalized assessed value of the property
multiplied by a |
fraction where the numerator is the number of
qualified units |
and denominator is the total number of dwelling units
located |
within the property.
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(f) Any municipality, except for municipalities with |
1,000,000 or more
inhabitants, may annually petition the county |
clerk
to be excluded from a housing opportunity area if it is |
able to demonstrate
that more than 2.5% of the total |
residential units located within that
municipality are |
occupied by tenants under the housing choice voucher program.
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Properties located within an excluded municipality shall not be |
eligible for
the housing opportunity area abatement for the tax |
year in which the petition
is made.
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(g) Applicability. This Section applies to tax years 2004 |
through
2014, unless extended by law.
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(Source: P.A. 93-316, eff. 7-23-03.)
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Section 99. Effective date. This Act takes effect upon |
becoming law.
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