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The Treasury Department’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) recently posted audits of the Section 1602 program for Rhode Island and Arkansas. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, a stimulus package signed into law by President Obama in February 2009 in response to the Great Recession, provided in Section 1602 grants to be awarded to states for low-income housing projects in lieu of low-income housing credit allocations.
On May 9, the television series Frontline aired an installment of a joint investigation with NPR on the affordable housing crisis. This particular episode, titled “Poverty, Politics and Profit,” took a look at the LIHTC program. After the airing, affordable housing industry organizations quickly disputed what they referred to as misleading depictions of the LIHTC program in a joint statement.
A recent report from MPF Research, the intelligence arm of RealPage, has found that Phoenix has the greatest mismatch between needy households and housing credits units. According to the data, Phoenix has just 6.08 housing credit units per 100 low-income households, ranking it the lowest out of the top 50 apartment markets studied by the firm. Phoenix was followed by Pittsburgh (6.13) and Syracuse, N.Y., (6.27).
HUD recently published “Understanding Whom the LIHTC Program Serves: Data on Tenants in LIHTC Units as of December 31, 2014.” The report provides demographic and economic data about LIHTC tenants, including race, ethnicity, family composition, age, income, use of rental assistance, disability status, and monthly rent burden. This report is the third public release of information as required by the Housing and Economic Recovery Act (HERA) of 2008.
HUD recently announced the 2017 income limits for the MTSP housing programs effective April 14, 2017. This includes low-income housing tax credits and tax-exempt bond financing. HUD advises that the income limits are effective immediately for all HUD programs, whereas the IRS allows a transition period from the date of publication to implement the new limits. According to IRS Revenue Ruling 94-57, income limits must be implemented on the effective date or no more than 45 days from the published date.
The National Fair Housing Alliance (NFHA) recently released its annual report on fair housing trends. The report, entitled “The Case for Fair Housing: 2017 Fair Housing Trends Report,” includes the most recent data on reported instances of housing discrimination across the country. Every year, the NFHA compiles data from a comprehensive set of fair housing organizations and government agencies to provide a snapshot of what housing discrimination looks like today. Some of the highlights from the 2016 data include the following data points:
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 generated revenues are $300 billion over 10 years.
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