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Representative Pat Tiberi (R-OH-12) and Ways and Means Committee Ranking Member Richard Neal (D-MA-1) recently introduced the Affordable Housing Credit Improvement Act of 2017 (H.R. 1661). This is the companion legislation to S. 548, which Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA) and Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch (R-UT) introduced earlier to strengthen and expand the Low Income Housing Tax Credit program.

Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA) recently released a report entitled “Meeting the Challenges of the Growing Affordable Housing Crisis.” The report details the exploding demand for affordable housing and the dramatic decrease in affordable units. It attributes the crisis to an increased demand for housing, the constrained supply of housing, and stagnant wages. Here are the key findings from the report:

The Haas Institute for a Fair and Inclusive Society at UC Berkeley recently released a study that comprehensively analyzes the administration of the LIHTC program in California by examining LIHTC developments in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Representative Keith Ellison (D-MN) recently reintroduced legislation to end homelessness and housing poverty through tax reform. The bill calls for reducing the mortgage interest deduction to a flat 15 percent tax credit for the first $500,000 of debt. The legislation would gradually phase-out the current deduction and direct the revenue generated into LIHTCs, Section 8 rental assistance, the Public Housing Capital Fund, and the Housing Trust Fund. The estimated genera...

Texas Low Income Housing Information Service recently released a report titled “Fair Housing and Balanced Choices: Did Texas Reduce Government-Funded Segregation?” The report looked at the effect of a 2013 change in LIHTC award criteria on the location of LIHTC developments in the state’s five largest metro areas. These areas include Austin, Dallas, Fort Worth, Houston, and San Antonio. The new race-neutral criteria resulted in properties located in ar...

On Feb. 13, by a vote of 53 to 47, the United States Senate voted to confirm the nomination of Steve Mnuchin, a former investment banker and Hollywood film financier, to serve as Secretary of the Treasury. Mnuchin served as senior advisor and finance chair to the Trump campaign and recently served as chairman and corporate executive officer of OneWest Bank.

During Dr. Ben Carson’s confirmation hearing before the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, & Urban Affairs, Carson spoke of harnessing the private sector to help those in poverty, and the Low Income Housing Tax Credit came up specifically during a conversation with Senator David Purdue (R-GA).

A study recently published online in Housing Policy Debate titled “How Location Efficient is LIHTC? Measuring and Explaining State-Level Achievement” finds that recently built rental housing funded by low-income housing tax credits is more likely to be in “location-efficient” neighborhoods than the overall housing stock. The study finds that state qualified allocation plans (QAPs), and an active nonprofit sector are key factors in the location ef...

Representative Keith Ellison (D-MN) recently circulated a Dear Colleague letter urging the House Ways and Means Committee to use tax reform as an opportunity to end homelessness and housing poverty by keeping housing-related tax savings within housing. The letter asks representatives to join the letter to Ways and Means Chairman Kevin Brady and Ranking Member Richard Neal requesting that comprehensive tax reform provide additional resources for stable, decent, and affor...

The expectation that President Trump and Congress will cut corporate taxes is already affecting the pricing of LIHTCs for investors. The anticipation of comprehensive tax reform has made some LIHTC investors pause activity or make decisions based on the assumption of less equity per dollar of credit. Because the LIHTC is a dollar-for-dollar credit that allows corporations and banks to offset tax liability by investing directly in affordable housing projects, the value o...