Tag Archives: low income housing tax credit

Housing Problems and Federal Assistance

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Family living in a one-room tenement. New York, NY, USA (1890) by Jacob Riis. This version was colorized by Kelly Short.

The Urban Institute’s G. Thomas Kingsley has posted a brief, Trends in Housing Problems and Federal Housing Assistance. It opens,

In the 1930s, many American families lived in seriously deficient housing. To address that challenge, the federal government began building subsidized housing, and in the decades that followed, a complex array of federal programs evolved to tackle the continuing housing problems of low-income renters. Almost 10 years ago, the Urban Institute prepared a “primer”to assess this evolution. This brief is an update of major sections of that report, focusing on trends in national housing problems and federal housing assistance over the past decade. It shows that renter housing needs have grown substantially—almost totally because of unaffordably high rents rather than physical deficiencies—and federal housing assistance is not keeping up. The number of low-income renters that actually receive federal housing assistance has dropped notably as a fraction of the low-income households that need it. Evidence indicates that this gap will worsen.

. . . this brief explains the basics of US housing assistance to those unfamiliar with the field. After a summary, it (1) reviews recent changes in the number of US households by tenure and the nature of the housing problems renters face, (2) identifies the nation’s major federal housing assistance programs and explains how they work, (3) examines changes in the scale and spatial patterns of federal housing assistance and the characteristics of assisted households, and (4) identifies recent policy shifts and issues affecting future directions for these programs and pointing out literature offering fuller explanations. (1)

Its main findings include,

  • Household formation has slowed, and the renter share has significantly increased (mostly among the lowest-income groups).
  • Physical housing problems decline as the affordability challenge increases.
  • There are many more households with housing needs.
  • Since 2007, the number of households receiving HUD project-based assistance (in public housing or in privately owned subsidized projects) remained stable, while the number receiving housing vouchers increased.
  • But the modest increase in HUD deep-subsidy assistance has been overshadowed by growth in the need; the housing assistance gap has widened significantly.
  • The beneficiaries served by HUD programs is shifting away from families with children and toward the elderly and disabled.
  • The Low-Income Housing Tax Credit has been the fastest-growing US housing program over the past two decades. It does not necessarily add to the number of households receiving assistance, but it allows deep-subsidy resources to be spread among more households than would be possible without it.
  • Given forces at play, the housing assistance gap will likely worsen. (2-3)

There’s a lot more in the brief for those who want an overview of where we are with housing in the early 21st century.

The Long Wait for Home

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house-keys

The most recent issue of Housing Spotlight from the National Low Income Housing Coalition is titled The Long Wait for a Home. The Executive Summary reads,

The Public Housing and Housing Choice Voucher (HCV) programs provide essential affordable housing to some of the nation’s most financially vulnerable households. Forty percent of new public housing admissions and 75% of new voucher holders each year are required to be extremely low income (ELI) households, who earn no more than 30% of their area’s median income (AMI) or the federal poverty guideline, whichever is higher. Seventy-one percent of the nearly 1.1 million public housing households and 74% of the 2.2 million HCV recipient households are ELI (HUD, 2015).

The housing resources available to ELI renters however are insufficient. The private and subsidized rental markets make available only 3.2 million affordable homes for the nation’s 10.4 million ELI renter households, resulting in a national shortage of 7.2 million rental homes (NLIHC, 2016). ELI households face a long wait for housing assistance. Unable to find affordable housing, 75% of ELI renter households are severely cost burdened, spending more than 50% of their income on housing costs and leaving little money for other necessities (NLIHC, 2016).

The last nationwide survey of Public Housing Agencies (PHAs) regarding their public housing and voucher waiting lists was conducted in 2012. Since then, rental affordability has worsened, squeezing ELI renters even further out of the private market. To document the current state of waiting lists, NLIHC surveyed PHAs in the Fall of 2015 and Winter of 2016. Three hundred twenty PHAs responded with complete surveys, representing a diversity of size, location, and metropolitan status.

Survey data paint a bleak picture of waiting lists closed to new applicants and long waits for housing assistance. Key findings include: „

  • Fifty-three percent of HCV waiting lists were closed to new applicants for housing assistance. Sixty-five percent of HCV waiting lists closed to the general public had been closed for at least one year. „
  • Eleven percent of public housing waiting lists were closed to new applicants. Thirty-seven percent of public housing waiting lists closed to the general public had been closed for at least one year. „
  • The median HCV waiting list had a wait time of 1.5 years. Twenty-five percent of HCV waiting lists had a wait time of 3 years or longer. „
  • The median public housing waiting list had a wait time of 9 months. Twenty-five percent of public housing waiting lists had a wait time of 1.5 years or longer. „
  • ELI households accounted for nearly 74% of households on the average HCV waiting list and more than 67% of households on the typical public housing waiting list.
  • Families with children accounted for 60% of households on the average HCV waiting list and 46% of households on the typical public housing waiting list. „
  • Seniors comprised the most common type of household on 15% of the public housing waiting lists for which these data were provided.

Closed waiting lists and long waits for housing assistance make clear that we must expand housing resources for our nation’s lowest income renters. Legislation introduced in the 114th Congress would increase investments in vouchers, public housing, and other housing programs.

*     *      *

These policy changes, and others like them, could end housing poverty and homelessness once and for all by providing the resources necessary for every low income family to afford a home.

This report rightly brings attention to the big problems facing extremely low income households and federal affordable housing programs. Whether anything is done for them depends completely on the outcome of the election.

Tuesday’s Regulatory & Legislative Round-Up

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Tuesday’s Regulatory & Legislative Round-Up

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  • The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) held a policy conference to commemorate the 50 year anniversary of the Fair Housing Act.  Among the conference materials is a report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) which states the the Internal Revenue Service’s (IRS) oversight over compliance with the Low Income Housing Tax Credit Program (LIHTC) has been lax and proposes joint IRS/HUD oversight.  The NMTC has been used to create affordable housing through Housing finance Agencies (HFAs).  According to the GAO report the IRS has only conducted seven audits of the 56 HFA since 1986. The GAO report states, “Joint administration with HUD could better align program responsibilities with each agency’s mission and more efficiently address existing oversight challenges.”
  • The U.S. Treasury has awarded awarded $202 million dollars to 195 Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs) through the Community Development Financial Institutions Fund (CDFI Fund).  The CDFI Fund was established in 1994 to provide capital and access to credit in underserved communities through CDFIs. CDFIs are mission driven financial institutions which work on the local level to revitalize neighborhoods and create economic change.  The CDFI Program invests in and builds the capacity of community credit unions, banks, loan funds, and other financial institutions serving rural and urban communities.
  • The Seattle Mayor has proposed new legislation to build 6,000 new affordable housing units. The proposal has been dubbed a “grand bargain” between affordable housing advocates and real estate developers. This grand bargain will require all new development in Seattle pay for affordable housing creation.
  • Not to be outdone, the Mayor of Denver has also been mulling over a policy (mentioned in his inaugural address) which would tax new development and also raise the property taxes.  Both Seattle and Denver are reacting to a situation in which lower paid professionals including teachers, restaurant and healthcare workers are increasingly difficult to attract and recruit because they are unable to find housing they can afford.

Thursday’s Advocacy & Think Tank Round-Up

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  • Affordable Rental Housing A.C.T.I.O.N. (A Call to Invest in Our Neighborhooods) has released both a National Fact Sheet and State specific Fact Sheets on the impact of the Low Income Housing Tax Credit Impact (LIHTC), which it characterizes the LIHTC as “the most effective affordable housing production tool.”  The National Fact sheet indicates among other things that 2,798,776 units were developed or preserved via the LIHTC.  The New York State Fact Sheet, in particular, indicates that 2,357,234 New York households pay more than half of their income in rent (a data point which is included for all states).
  • The New York Federal Reserve’s interactive Home Price Index Tool maps overall changes in home prices across localities of the United States as compared to the previous month – the data is current from June 2007 through June 2015.
  • The Urban Institute has published, Charted: How Housing Policy Impacts Inequality in which it charted a correlation between housing benefits and income inequality.  Their findings indicate that when these benefits go to the well of in the form of the mortgage interest deduction and real estate tax deduction inequality increases.  On the other hand, federal housing benefits to the poor decrease inequality.

Tuesday’s Regulatory & Legislative Round-Up

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Friday’s Government Reports Roundup

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