Thursday, April 15, 2021
AN IMPORTANT NEW OPTION FOR FINANCING AFFORDABLE HOUSING
The federal “9%” Housing Tax Credit (HTC) program, designed to finance up to 70% of qualified development costs, has for decades been the principal engine for the financing of low income housing in the United States. HTCs function like grants because the return to investors comes from the credits they take against their federal income tax liability over a ten-year period. Unfortunately, there is a limited supply of 9% HTCs and the allocation process, administered by state housing agencies, is highly competitive.
While some tribally-designated housing entities (TDHEs) have been successful in obtaining 9% HTCs, most have not. Demand for the 9% HTCs far outstrips supply and many states’ criteria give preference to urban developments, making it difficult for tribes to file successful applications. Tribes unable to access the 9% HTC program have incorrectly assumed that they have no op
In
Hearn v. Comcast Cable Communications, LLC, the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals reversed a district court holding denying the defendant’s motion to compel arbitration regarding the plaintiff’s Fair Credit Reporting Act claim and remanded the matter for further proceedings.
In that case, the plaintiff obtained services from the defendant in 2016, and signed a subscriber agreement with an arbitration provision stating that “[a]ny dispute involving [the customer] and Comcast shall be resolved through individual arbitration.” The plaintiff terminated his services in 2017, but subsequently called the defendant in 2019 to “inquire about pricing and obtaining services” again. The plaintiff alleged that one of the defendant’s representatives impermissibly checked his credit information during the call, and his credit score consequentially dropped. Accordingly, the plaintiff filed a putative class-action suit, alleging the defendant violated the FCRA when the defendant
In
Hearn v. Comcast Cable Communications, LLC, the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals held that a FCRA claim arising nearly a year after the termination of a subscriber agreement was subject to the arbitration provision included in the terminated subscriber agreement. 2021 WL 1246263 (11th Cir. 2021). Hearn was a Comcast subscriber, subject to a subscriber agreement (the “2016 Subscriber Agreement”) from December 2016 until August 2017, when he terminated the Comcast services. In March 2019, Hearn contacted Comcast again about pricing for services
at the same Service Address. In connection with his request, Hearn alleged that Comcast initiated a credit inquiry without his permission or knowledge. Hearn filed a putative class action in the Northern District of Georgia alleging violations of the Fair Credit Reporting Act.
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A federal appeals court has just provided some much-needed relief to businesses facing a barrage of website accessibility lawsuits alleging that their sites do not comply with the nation’s main disability discrimination statute. These lawsuits typically involve a prospective plaintiff, or their counsel, merely accessing a company’s website and testing various screen reading software, filing suit if any portion of the website is not compatible with any of the assistive technologies. In the April 7
Gil v. Winn-Dixie decision, the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals struck a blow to these lawsuits by holding that a website is not a place of public accommodation subject to the Title III the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and setting a high bar for website accessibility issues to rise to the level of a statutory violation. While Wednesday’s decision itself only directly impacts businesses in Alabama, Florida, and G