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Keys in the door of a newly purchased home.

County authorizes CHFA to issue $4.1 million in bonds

PABs help Colorado Housing and Finance Authority fund homebuyer loan programs

PRESS RELEASE
September 11, 2025

Garfield County has transferred nearly $4.1 million in private activity bonds (PABs) to the Colorado Housing and Finance Authority (CHFA) to help bolster affordable housing initiatives in the area. Through the bonds, CHFA funds housing initiatives that benefit low- and moderate-income buyers, including first-time homebuyer loan programs.

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) assigns each state an annual bonding authority, or capacity on PABs, which by state statute is allocated to municipalities and counties on a per-capita basis. Garfield County can then authorize organizations like CHFA to utilize the PABs for housing programs.

Investors may then purchase the bonds, which are used to help finance various housing developments, mortgage loans, and mortgage credits for first-time homebuyers. The tax-exempt bonds can be used for new construction, rehabilitation projects, as well as purchasing an existing home.

Kathryn Grosscup, housing tax credit manager for CHFA, told the Board of County Commissioners that this bond resource allows them to enter capital markets to raise funds and then lend them at a tax-exempt rate, which keeps lending costs down.

“This creates opportunity for supporting first-time and moderate homebuyers in Garfield County,” she said. “It also helps, in some cases, in supporting multiple family transactions where that tax-exempt financing also leverages federal housing tax credits and brings additional equity into the project. It’s a very powerful resource in Colorado.”

Grosscup said the program has aided 298 individuals in acquiring a home since 2020. She added that moderate income buyers are at 145 percent of area median income or AMI ($82,485 in 2024).

In 2024, The board recommended to CHFA that the county’s allocation be awarded to affordable-housing developer Cohen-Esrey, which is building Canyon Vista in Glenwood Springs. Once complete, this property will be home to 80 income-restricted rental units for individuals earning between 20 and 80 percent of the AMI.

“Each government has the opportunity to decide what they’d like to do with this resource,” Grosscup added. “We’ve been very grateful at CHFA to have that resource transfer to us, so we can deploy it for mortgage lending, and in certain cases, multi-family affordable rental housing development.”

The board approved allocating its authority to issue the tax-exempt bonds to CHFA unanimously, 3-0.

“We’re keeping these funds in Garfield County and that’s the important issue here,” said Commissioner Tom Jankovsky. “There’s so much talk about affordability and the cost of housing is so high. I think this is a great program.”