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A group of 2,000 organizations and businesses signed a letter urging Congress and the Trump administration to prioritize the LIHTC program during tax reform deliberations. The letter, submitted on behalf of the ACTION Campaign, highlights the accomplishments of the program and why it’s still needed.
A report recently published in the Journal of Housing Economics entitled “Poverty Concentration and the Low Income Housing Tax Credit: Effects of Siting and Tenant Composition” found that the LIHTC program could play a critical role in shaping the distribution of poverty in America. Using data from HUD, census data, and two newly constructed supplemental datasets containing information on tenants of LIHTC developments and LIHTC applications from developers, the authors examined two central questions.
Trulia, an online residential real estate site, recently released a study in a blog post entitled, “There Doesn’t Go the Neighborhood: Low-Income Housing Has No Impact on Nearby Home Values.” The study found that low-income housing funded with LIHTCs did not impact the value of nearby homes. The author’s analysis included 3,083 LIHTC sites in 20 of the least affordable housing markets. She examined changes in nearby home values before and after a LIHTC site was completed.
The Social Security Administration recently announced that monthly Social Security and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) benefits for more than 65 million Americans will increase 0.3 percent in 2017. The 0.3 percent cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) will begin to Social Security beneficiaries in January 2017. And increased payments to more than 8 million SSI beneficiaries will begin on Dec. 30, 2016. The Social Security Act ties the annual COLA to the increase in the Consumer Price Index as determined by the Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics.
HUD recently published in the Federal Register the final rule implementing housing provisions under the Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act of 2013 (VAWA) as it applies to HUD programs. The rule codifies VAWA core protections across covered HUD programs to ensure individuals are not denied assistance, evicted, or have their assistance terminated because of their status as victims of domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault and stalking, or for being affiliated with a victim.
From Oct. 6 to Oct. 11, as a result of Hurricane Matthew, President Obama and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) declared parts of South Carolina, North Carolina, Florida, and Georgia as major disaster areas. Among other federal assistance, these declarations make LIHTC and tax-exempt bond-financed sites in these areas eligible for relief under the Internal Revenue Code.
The IRS recently issued Revenue Procedure 2016-52, which publishes the amounts of unused housing credit carryovers allocated to qualified states under Section 42(h)(3)(D) of the Internal Revenue Code for calendar year 2016. This year, slightly more than $2.6 million in unused low-income housing tax credit carryovers were placed in the national pool and reallocated to 34 qualified states.
The amounts of national pool LIHTCs reallocated to states range from $8,151 for North Dakota to $416,376 for California. Sixteen states received no national pool allocations.
The White House recently released the “Housing Development Toolkit,” which highlights actions state and local jurisdictions can take to encourage housing development. The white paper argues that restrictive zoning contributes to high rents, exacerbates wealth inequality, and slows the U.S. economy.
A bill signed by Governor Jerry Brown will allow California school districts to use federal tax credits, as well as local and state funds, when leasing property for the development of affordable housing for teachers and other school district employees. “When high-quality teachers can’t afford to live where they work, the entire community suffers,” said bill author Senator Mark Leno, D-San Francisco, in a statement. “SB 1413 will help school districts directly address the housing affordability challenges facing teachers and reduce high turnover rates.”
In 2015, in Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs v. Inclusive Communities Project, Inc., the U.S. Supreme Court upheld “disparate impact” liability under the Fair Housing Act. Under this theory, a housing provider violates the Fair Housing Act when the provider’s policy or practice has an unjustified discriminatory effect, even when the provider had no intent to discriminate.
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