To mark the 27th anniversary of the Low Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC), the Bipartisan Policy Center Housing Commission has published 13 commentaries highlighting the federal program’s success factors and lessons learned.
The commentaries detail the LIHTC program’s successes in stimulating affordable housing production and preservation, fostering private-public partnerships, and strengthening many communities. Specifically, it has helped to produce approximately 2.6 million affordable housing units, leverage more than $100 billion in private sector capital, and create more than 3.6 million jobs, according to Ali Solis, Enterprise Community Partners’ senior vice president. Garth Rieman, the National Council of State Housing Agencies’ director of housing advocacy and strategic initiatives, wrote that state administration, private sector oversight, and performance-based incentives are key factors that have made the LIHTC program successful.
At the same time, the LIHTC program has faced numerous challenges during its 27-year history. Bill Kelly of Stewards of Affordable Housing for the Future notes that the program has not provided sufficient support to meet the needs of the very poor, including households with special needs. Barbara Sard, the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities’ vice president for housing policy, suggests a new renter’s tax credit to reach the poorest families. She also recommends that HUD devote effort and investment toward collecting national data on LIHTC-assisted families, so that policy makers and the general public have a better sense of those that the program serves.
The Housing Expert Forum: The LIHTC commentaries are available at: http://bit.ly/1ee9YDZ