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Explainers

How Are LIHTC Rules Enforced—And How Well?

LIHTC developers must follow strict affordability rules—and fulfill other promises—for at least 30 years. While industry insiders insist compliance rates are high, tenant advocates say noncompliance is a real problem.

A graphic showing buildings, some shaded in red, to illustrate Shelterforce's new Under the Lens series, LIHTC: The Good, the Bad, and the Very Complicated
Reported Article

LIHTC: How It Started, How It’s Going

The Low-Income Housing Tax Credit was created in a moment when other real estate tax preferences were going away—but at the time, no one expected it to grow into the main source of affordable housing finance in the country.

Reported Article

Making Housing More Accessible for People With Multiple Chemical Sensitivities

Accessibility for this challenging disability can look different from other measures—but addressing it could help improve everyone’s health. 

A small, one-story, gray-shingled cottage with a red door and white trim, with overhanging trees on the left and right.
Reported Article

FHA Changes Could Make ADU Construction More Affordable

The Federal Housing Administration may soon allow homeowners to count projected rent toward their qualifying income to build an accessory dwelling unit. While ADU advocates call the change “monumental,” the proposed policy isn’t perfect.

Interview

Taking the ADU Model to the Next Level, a Shelterforce and Next City Webinar

How can we get more accessory dwelling units built, keep them affordable, and make them forces for increasing racial equity?

Community Development Field

Shelterforce’s Top 10 Stories of 2022

Background explainers, affordability restrictions, and race and belonging topped the list of our most-read pieces of the year.

Reported Article

Did LA’s Supportive Housing Bond Fail?

Six years after Prop HHH was passed, the fund appears to be delivering on its housing construction goals in the 10-year timeline, but the measure is being routinely criticized on all sides for delays, rising costs, and being an inadequate fix to LA’s homelessness crisis.

Reported Article

Affordable ADUs: How It’s Being Done

In the face of limited financing options, local governments, nonprofits, and social enterprises are experimenting with ways to make affordable ADUs a reality.

Reported Article

How Financing Barriers Keep ADUs Expensive

Most homeowners have neither the capital nor the credit to self-finance an ADU or get a loan to build one. If financing doesn’t change, ADUs will stay niche and expensive.

Construction

3D-Printed Houses: New Trend or Lasting Solution?

Habitat for Humanity sponsored a virtual panel discussion on 3D-printed homes, moderated by Shelterforce’s editor in chief, Miriam Axel-Lute.

Opinion

Look Close to Home for Construction Cost Savings

We don’t have to turn to fancy tech to lower the cost of building.

Reported Article

Can Robotics Help Solve the Affordable Housing Crisis?

While affordable housing developers have been slow to embrace automation, for-profit companies are bullish on its prospects. What do they see as the benefits and drawbacks?