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The National Low Income Housing Coalition and the Public and Affordable Housing Research Corporation (PAHRC) recently released a report entitled Balancing Priorities: Preservation and Neighborhood Opportunity in the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit Program Beyond Year 30. This report raises the question—what will happen when almost 500,000 homes built through the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) lose their federal affordability requirements?

Senate Finance Committee member Dean Heller (R-NV) recently introduced the Seniors Affordable Housing Tax Credit Act, S. 3580, which would establish a tax credit for owners of multifamily rental property who agree to rent to extremely low-income seniors. The tax credit would cover the difference between the senior household’s rent payment, at the lesser of 30 percent of the individual household’s income or the fair market rent, and the rent the owner would o...

The National Council of State Housing Agencies (NCSHA) recently released “Variation in Development Costs for LIHTC Projects,” a report by Abt Associates. The report examines the factors affecting the cost of developing affordable multifamily rental housing using the federal Low-Income Housing Tax Credit Program (LIHTC). Using data provided by 14 LIHTC syndicators, the researchers analyzed development cost data for more than 2,500 projects developed through t...

The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities recently released a report entitled, “Low-Income Housing Tax Credit Could Do More to Expand Opportunity for Poor Families.” The report finds that LIHTC housing is disproportionately concentrated in higher poverty and racially concentrated neighborhoods. The report suggests improvements for the LIHTC program that could support low-income families’ access to low-poverty neighborhoods.

The House Ways & Means Committee Chair Kevin Brady (R-TX) recently introduced a follow-up to the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. Three bills constitute Republicans’ Tax Reform 2.0 package and primarily lock in individual and small business tax cuts made in the legislation passed in December 2017, and reform savings- and education-related tax provisions. The measures as introduced do not make any changes to the LIHTC.  

By a vote of 14 to 13, along party lines, the Senate Finance Committee recently voted to advance Charles Rettig’s nomination as IRS Commissioner to the full Senate. Rettig is a tax attorney at the Beverly Hills law firm Hochman, Salkin, Rettig, Toscher & Perez, P.C. who has spent most of his career representing clients before the IRS.

Senator Cory Booker (D-N.J.) recently introduced the Housing, Opportunity, Mobility and Equity (HOME) Act, which is designed to promote inclusionary zoning policies and improve housing affordability. The bill directs all jurisdictions receiving grants under the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) program to create strategies that increase the supply of housing and ease zoning restrictions that impede development.

Wells Fargo & Co. recently disclosed in a regulatory filing that multiple U.S. agencies are probing into the bank's use of low-income housing tax credits. "Federal government agencies have undertaken formal or informal inquiries or investigations" about how Wells Fargo bought, and negotiated the purchase of, "certain federal low-income housing tax credits in connection with the financing of low-income housing developments," the bank said on i...

Senator Martin Heinrich (D-NM), Ranking Member of the Joint Economic Committee, recently released a report entitled “Investing in Rural America,” which provides a deep dive into the current state of the rural economy and the policies that may help advance opportunity in rural areas—which includes opportunities for affordable housing.

According to a new report from the Urban Institute, a nonprofit research organization, although the LIHTC is the biggest source of funding for new affordable rental housing, it faces legislative and economic challenges.