Appointed to the Missouri Housing Development Commission

Press Coverage: Kansas City Star, 2009; Nixon Appoints Troy Nash to Housing Commission

In 2009, Governor Jay Nixon appointed me to the Missouri Housing Development Commission. If you work in affordable housing in Missouri, you know what MHDC is. If you do not, here is the short version: MHDC is the state body that oversees housing policy and allocates Low Income Housing Tax Credits across Missouri. It is a central institution in the state's affordable housing ecosystem.

Every developer pursuing LIHTC financing in Missouri must apply to MHDC. Every application is scored against the state's Qualified Allocation Plan. Every award is a decision that determines which projects get built and which neighborhoods receive investment. The commissioners who sit on that body shape the state's housing landscape for years to come.

I was one of those commissioners.

Why This Appointment Mattered

Most affordable housing developers interact with their state housing finance agency as applicants. They submit applications, they wait for scoring, they celebrate if they win and regroup if they lose. They see the process from one side.

I saw it from the inside. As a commissioner, I reviewed applications. I evaluated scoring. I participated in discussions about which projects deserved limited state resources and which did not. I understood how the QAP criteria translated into actual funding decisions, because I voted on those decisions as a commissioner.

That perspective is exceptionally rare in the private sector. Most development consultants have never sat in the room where allocation decisions are made. They have never heard the discussions about why one project scored higher than another. They have never seen the trade-offs that commissioners make when the number of deserving projects exceeds the available credits.

I have seen all of that. And that knowledge directly informs every tax credit application The Nash Group prepares.

What The Commission Taught Me

Serving on MHDC taught me several things that directly inform our work today.

First, the QAP is not a formula. It is a set of priorities that reflect the state's housing strategy. Understanding those priorities is not about reading the document. It is about understanding the policy goals behind each criterion. Why does the QAP weight community revitalization? Because the state wants to direct investment to neighborhoods that need it most. Why does it score transit access? Because the state recognizes that housing without transportation is incomplete. Why does it prioritize certain populations? Because the state has identified specific unmet needs.

When you understand the why behind the criteria, you can structure projects that genuinely align with the state's priorities, not just technically satisfy the scoring rubric. The difference between a project that checks boxes and a project that embodies the state's housing strategy is the difference between an adequate application and a winning one.

Second, the supply of tax credits is permanently insufficient. There is always more need than there are credits to award. That means every application must be excellent, not just adequate. The difference between a funded project and an unfunded project is often a matter of a few points on a scoring rubric. Those points come from attention to detail in every section of the application: the market study, the community engagement evidence, the financial projections, the development team qualifications, and the narrative that ties it all together.

Third, the commissioners care about execution. An award is not just a commitment of tax credits. It is a commitment of the state's credibility. When a project fails after receiving an allocation, it reflects on the commission. The commissioners want to award credits to teams that will actually deliver. Track record matters. Development experience matters. Financial capacity matters. A first-time developer with a good project will lose to an experienced developer with a comparable project every time, because the commission has been burned by inexperienced teams who could not execute.

How This Shows Up In Our Work

When we prepare LIHTC applications for clients or for our own projects, we bring a commissioner's perspective to every section. We do not just fill in the blanks. We build applications that anticipate the questions commissioners will ask and answer them preemptively.

We know that a strong application tells a story. Not a marketing story, but a development story: here is the need, here is the site, here is the team, here is the capital stack, here is the community support, and here is why this project deserves the state's limited resources more than the other applications on the table.

We know that community engagement letters are not just evidence of support. They are evidence that the development team has actually engaged the community and incorporated their input into the project design. Commissioners can tell the difference between form letters and genuine engagement. They review many applications, and they can spot a developer who mailed out form letters and collected signatures without ever holding a community meeting.

We know that financial projections must be conservative and realistic. Commissioners have seen enough applications to spot aggressive assumptions. A pro forma that assumes unrealistic rent growth or minimal vacancy is not just a bad financial model. It is a signal that the development team does not understand the market or is trying to make a marginal deal look viable.

The Bottom Line

Governor Nixon appointed me to MHDC because of my experience in housing policy, community development, and public service. I served on the commission because I understood that tax credit allocation is not just a financial process. It is a policy process that determines which communities receive investment.

That experience is rare. Most people in this industry have never sat on the other side of the table. I have. And that perspective makes every application we submit, every project we structure, and every client we advise better prepared for the reality of how these decisions are made.