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The ACTION Campaign, a broad coalition of LIHTC organizations, recently submitted a statement to the House Ways and Means Committee in response to a May 18 hearing on “How Tax Reform Will Grow Our Economy and Create Jobs,” urging the committee to expand and strengthen the Housing Credit and protect multifamily Housing Bonds as part of any tax reform effort to grow our economy and create jobs.

The White House recently announced that President Trump intends to nominate Pamela Patenaude to serve as Deputy Secretary for Housing and Urban Development (HUD). Patenaude is currently president of the J. Ronald Terwilliger Foundation for America’s Families, an organization that seeks to elevate housing’s place on the political agenda. Patenaude has held a variety of housing policy positions in both the public and private sectors. She served as HUD Deputy S...

The American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) Public Policy Institute recently released a report highlighting the importance of LIHTC sites for the elderly population. The report finds that 30 percent of housing cost-burdened households are ages 62 and older. According to the report, as a result of low incomes and high costs for housing, there is demand for affordable housing among older renters. Approximately 16 percent of LIHTC properties are intended primarily f...

In a recent poll performed by Harvard-Harris, “a monthly poll released by Harvard’s Center for American Political Studies (CAPS) and Harris Insights and Analytics,” voters supported the continuation of the Low Income Housing Tax Credit by 74 percent. This support was greater than any other corporate tax credit included in the poll.

A U.S. district judge recently ruled that a Colorado landlord’s refusal to rent to a lesbian couple, one of whom is transgender, violates federal housing law. The ruling is the first in which a court has extended protections to people based on their sexual orientation or gender identity under the federal Fair Housing Act. The act bars housing discrimination because of race, religion, and sex, among other factors.

Utah’s governor recently signed into law an expansion of the state’s low-income housing tax credit program. The law establishes a new supplemental funding source dedicated to serving extremely low-income households. The new legislation will allow the Utah Housing Corporation to administer tax credits valued at up to $4 million. Additionally, $2 million is now set aside for the State Housing and Community Development Division to establish an Economic Revitali...

Matthew Desmond, a Harvard sociologist, recently won the Pulitzer Prize in General Nonfiction for a book based on research conducted in Milwaukee. The book, "Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City," studies the relationship between eviction and poverty through the stories of eight Milwaukee families, black and white, and two landlords involved with them.

The IRS recently released Notice 2017-19, which gives the state population figures used in determining LIHTC allocation amounts as well as private activity bond caps. Revenue Procedure 2016-55 specifies that for the year 2017, each state will receive the greater of $2.35 multiplied by the state’s population or $2,710,000.

Senator Al Franken and Representatives Keith Ellison and Erik Paulsen have introduced a bipartisan measure to help students who have faced homelessness put a roof over their heads while they pursue an education. The Housing for Homeless Students Act would allow full-time students who experience or have recently experienced homelessness to become eligible—or retain eligibility—for LIHTC housing.

The U.S. Government Accountability Office recently published a report investigating the role of syndicators in the Low Income Housing Tax Credit industry. GAO was asked to provide information on their involvement in the LIHTC market. This report describes: (1) the characteristics of active syndicators and their activity in the LIHTC market in 2005-2014; and (2) the role syndicators play in the LIHTC market and factors that influence their use.