"What exactly has to be in the zip file, and is there really zero grace period if the portal upload finishes at 12:01?"
9% Housing Credit: two packages, one zip file, a hard noon cutoff
The 9% Competitive Housing Credit Application has two components. The Combined Funders (CF) Application (the CF Sections Word document plus the CF Forms Excel workbook) covers the shared narrative, budget, and pro forma questions used by Commerce, King County, Snohomish County, ARCH, and Seattle. The LIHTC Addendum layers on WSHFC-specific requirements in four parts: an Addendum Checklist, Addendum Forms (including the LIHTC Allocation Scoring worksheet), a Rehab Addendum Forms workbook for rehabilitation projects, and the Multifamily Developer Portal itself, where every file is uploaded. For the 2026 cycle, applications were due in the Portal by 12:00 p.m. Pacific Standard Time on Monday, November 3, 2025 — the Policies state flatly that no late Applications will be accepted.
Assembly conventions matter as much as content: files are organized into subfolders mirroring the Application Checklist (e.g., Project Name > Project Description > Title Report.pdf), submitted as a single zipped folder, and no file's full path — including folder names — may exceed 260 characters. The application fee itself is a separate step: it's invoiced through the Portal and due no later than 10 business days after the application deadline, not at the moment of submission.
Threshold requirements and minimum points are checked before a project is ranked at all
Beyond the Minimum Threshold Requirements in Chapter 4 (control of all necessary land by the application deadline; a market study with an effective date within 12 months of the deadline; an appraisal, where required, within 6 months), every application also needs a minimum number of Allocation Criteria points just to be eligible for ranking — and that minimum is pool-specific. An application scoring below its pool's minimum is disqualified outright, and the (already nonrefundable) application fee is not returned.
§5.2.1 Fully Funded Projects gives top priority to applications where every permanent/takeout source except credit equity is already committed at application — competitive or public sources need a binding commitment or documented participation in a concurrent public-funder round, and private sources need a lender letter of interest dated within 60 days of the application. Unless stated otherwise elsewhere in the Policies, a project that isn't Fully Funded won't be ranked ahead of one that is, regardless of raw point score.
The 4%/Bond program doesn't run on a single annual date — it runs on tiers and rounds
King County Bond Cap allocation requires at least 10% public support inside Seattle or 5% outside Seattle within King County just to be considered, and awarded projects are placed into one of three tiers rather than a competitive score alone deciding timing. Tier 1 projects are fully funded, permit-ready, and actively securing lender/investor commitments — and are expected to close within six months of being placed on Tier 1, or they lose the allocation and drop to Tier 2. Tier 2 projects are fully funded and expect permits within the calendar year; Tier 3 projects have local funding commitments and expect permits the following year. The Commission re-evaluates tier placement every January and July.
Outside Seattle/King County, applicants compete in Balance-of-State rounds and must file a Notification of Intent 60 days before the application deadline — informational only, not a commitment to apply, but a required prerequisite. Minimum scores differ by geography: 25 points outside King County (at least 4 of which must come from §4.5 "By and For the Community" criteria) versus 30 points inside King County (at least 5 from §4.5). Every project receiving Bond Cap or Carryforward Bond Cap needs a public hearing at a Commission meeting — held the fourth Thursday of most months, excluding May, November, and December — and Bond Cap generally must be issued by December 15 of the calendar year, with unused cap carried forward for up to three years before it's lost.
Two fee schedules, two different formulas — don't apply the 9% math to a bond deal
| Fee | 9% Program | 4%/Bond Program |
|---|---|---|
| Application fee | Greater of $26/unit or $1,265 | $7,500 single-site + $1,000/add'l site (Commission bonds), or $4,000 + $1,000/site (non-Commission bonds) |
| Reservation / Credit Issuance fee | 9.50% (≥50% units ≤50% AMI) or 12.53% of first-year credit | 6.02% flat (Commission bonds), or 9.50%/12.65% (non-Commission bonds) |
| Cap/deposit fees | N/A | Bond Cap Reservation Fee 0.5% (cap $75,000, competitive rounds only); Cost of Issuance Deposit 0.5% (cap $75,000, due at Scoping Meeting) |
| Annual compliance monitoring | $450 flat (≤10 units) or $45/unit (11+ units) | Same: $450 flat or $45/unit |
| Other | Transfer fee per Compliance Manual Ch. 9 | Bond Issuance Fee 25 bps; Bond Cap Allocation Fee 2.77 bps; min. $50,000 equity provider payment at pre-closing |
The Official Intent Declaration (OID) request fee — $750, payable in advance if the applicant intends to reimburse itself from bond proceeds for pre-issuance expenditures — can be credited once toward the eventual application fee. The Bond Cap Reservation Fee only applies when Bond Cap is competitive; it's waived entirely when Bond Cap is allocated non-competitively, and payment is due within five business days of the award notification or the allocation is withdrawn.
Where this goes wrong
- Assuming any grace period exists past the 12:00 p.m. Pacific deadline — the Policies state no late Applications will be accepted, full stop, regardless of the reason for the delay.
- Treating the application fee as paid at submission — it's invoiced separately through the Portal and due within 10 business days of the deadline, a step that's easy to lose track of once the application itself is in.
- Falling short of the pool-specific minimum threshold score (164 King / 158 Metro / 154 Non-Metro) — the application is disqualified outright and the nonrefundable fee is forfeited, independent of how competitive the raw score would otherwise be.
- Letting a deeply nested folder structure push a file's full path past 260 characters in the zipped submission — a naming-convention failure that has nothing to do with the application's substance.
- Not having full site control by the application deadline — Minimum Threshold Requirements are checked as of the deadline itself, not resolved afterward during underwriting.
- Missing the 60-day-advance Notification of Intent for a Bond/Tax Credit project outside Seattle/King County — it's a separate prerequisite from the application itself, easy to overlook because it's informational rather than a scored item.
- Treating King County's 10%/5% public-support requirement as a scoring preference rather than a gate — without it, a King County bond project isn't eligible for a Bond Cap allocation at all.
- Applying the 9% Reservation Fee percentages (9.50%/12.53%) to a Bond/Tax Credit deal — Commission-issued bond projects instead pay a flat 6.02% Credit Issuance Fee, a materially different number.
- HUD
- LIHTC
- State QAPs
- IRS § 42
- Housing Finance Agencies