Tag: lihtc
How to Reform the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit Program
Housing and policy experts agree that LIHTC has successfully increased the supply of affordable housing. But they also believe there's room for improvement.
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.
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.
Who Can Afford Housing in Madison, Wisconsin?
The city is growing fast and building a lot of housing. But the new housing isn’t keeping pace with the need, especially for high-income and extremely low-income earners.
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.
Mid-Lease Rent Hikes Surprise Affordable Housing Tenants
Residents of two LIHTC developments in Northern Virginia were informed that their rent would be increasing in 30 days, even if their leases weren’t ending for months. Is this part of a larger problem?
Income Averaging Allowed LIHTC Housing to Reach More People—Will It Last?
A Trump-era policy that actually helped poor people could be dismantled by the IRS.
Unfair Market Rents: How Inflation Is Skewing FMRs
"Fair market rents" are set by HUD and used to determine how much federal assistance programs will pay toward rent. But with rental costs rising so rapidly, they aren't keeping up.
What Happened to Those Build Back Better Housing Investments?
Build Back Better would have made huge new investments in housing. But most of what it promised isn’t going to happen. Would any housing plan have a chance of making it through Congress?
Eviction Reduction Should Be an Explicit Goal of the Low Income...
The largest source of subsidy for building affordable housing doesn’t come with meaningful eviction reduction requirements, or even incentives. But it could.
What Can Be Done When LIHTC Affordability Restrictions Expire?
The Low-Income Housing Tax Credit program has helped create more than 3 million affordable units across the country. But if something isn’t done soon, thousands of those homes could be lost forever as affordability periods expire.
A Once Reliable Way to Refinance Older Affordable Housing Gets Harder...
It had been relatively easy for a developer to get 4 percent tax credits, but that’s no longer true in many places. How is this affecting nonprofit housing developers—and could the human infrastructure bill help?
Protecting Domestic Violence Survivors From Eviction
COVID-19 has led to a surge in intimate partner violence. The Violence Against Women Act prohibits evictions of survivors simply because they have experienced violence in their homes, but such protections can be lacking in LIHTC-funded developments.
Is an Infrastructure Investment in Housing on Its Way?
The affordable housing industry considers the prospect of unprecedented funding if Biden’s housing as infrastructure plans make it through Congress.
How LISC, Enterprise Hope to Bring More Capital to Developers of...
Two large community development intermediaries have announced major racial equity initiatives that emphasize how affordable housing gets built—and who builds it.
LIHTC Preservation and the Need for Rental Assistance
Many LIHTC developments and renters who live in them are struggling to pay the bills. Could rental assistance alleviate the burden for both?
Losing Nonprofit Control of Tax Credit Housing?
How an ambiguous legal definition is endangering nonprofits’ control of dozens of affordable housing developments in the final years of their tax credit agreements.
Reshaping Housing Policy with a Health Lens
In Georgia, public health practitioners used a Health Impact Assessment to suggest changes to the allocation plan for Low-Income Housing Tax Credits. This is how they made it happen.
New York State’s Affordable Housing Developers: What They Do, How They...
In the first part of our series, we ask affordable housing developers in NYC how they deal with community opposition and how they overcome it.
Coming Together
The nonprofit housing development field has myriad intermediaries and support organizations, but no one unified voice. Should it have one?
