When developers seek financial resources for affordable rental housing development, many combine funds generated through the LIHTC program offered by the IRS with housing block grant funds provided through the HOME Investment Partnerships (HOME) program administered by HUD. For example, to...
Recently, Harvard University’s Joint Center for Housing Studies (JCHS) released “State of the Nation’s Housing 2015,” which suggests that an expansion of the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit is needed in order to respond to increasing pressures on the program.
Recently, the Senate Finance Committee led by Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch (R-UT) and Ranking Member Ron Wyden (D-OR) released reports from five bipartisan tax working groups. The groups were tasked earlier this year to examine and recommend changes to particular elements of the federal tax...
On July 16, bipartisan bills were introduced in both the House and the Senate to provide tax relief to communities affected by natural disasters from 2012 to 2015. The legislation includes provisions to increase allocations of low-income housing tax credits and new market tax credits. The...
A low-income housing tax credit’s value originally floated with interest rates, but the credit rate was temporarily fixed at 9 percent under the Housing and Economic Recovery Act (HERA), and this flat rate was again extended through Dec. 31, 2013 and 2014 under two additional legislative...
Recently, the J. Ronald Terwilliger Foundation for Housing America’s Families released The Silent Housing Crisis, a white paper documenting the significant housing challenges facing the country and making a call to action by the nation’s political leaders. The nonprofit organization...
Faced with a shortage of affordable rental housing in Tennessee, the Tennessee Housing Development Agency (THDA) recently issued a new study on the state’s LIHTC program. THDA manages the program in Tennessee and allocates federal tax credits to qualifying projects according to state and...
As of publication of this July 2015 issue, no decision has yet come down from the U.S. Supreme Court on Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs v. The Inclusive Communities Project, Inc., the case that will decide whether it’s within the bounds of the Fair Housing Act to...
Recent research has examined the siting patterns of Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) developments, but the reality is that the LIHTC program is not one uniform, national program. Rather, the program is administered by state allocating agencies, each of which has considerable discretion over...
Senator Al Franken (D-MN) and Senate Finance Committee member Rob Portman (R-OH) recently introduced the Housing for Homeless Students Act, S. 1412, which would add a new exemption to the housing credit student rule to allow full-time students to qualify to rent an LIHTC apartment if they were a...
The National Low Income Housing Coalition recently issued a report entitled “Out of Reach 2015.” The report highlights the growing housing affordability crisis in America and the need to expand and preserve the supply of quality affordable housing through programs such as the LIHTC...
The IRS recently released its 2015 Calendar Year Resident Population Figures in IRS Notice 2015-12. This notice advises state and local housing credit agencies that allocate low-income housing tax credits of the population figures to use in calculating tax credit ceilings and tax-exempt private...
