LOW-INCOME HOUSING TAX CREDIT SHOWCASE

About This Showcase
Affordable housing changed 30 years ago when Congress passed
the Tax Reform Act of 1986, which created the Low-Income
Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) program. In the subsequent three
decades, millions of affordable rental homes have been built and
preserved through funding provided by the LIHTC, providing
much needed housing for low- and moderate-income Americans.
Today, the tax credit provides virtually all low-income affordable
rental housing developed in the United States.
This report describes the
LIHTC and highlights various
affordable rental communities
financed using the tax credit. As
you’ll read, the LIHTC provides
far more than just affordable
rental housing. Homes developed
with the LIHTC provide tangible
economic and social benefits in
neighborhoods across the country.
Clean, safe and affordable rental
housing can provide a sense of
community, security or even
hope to some of our nation’s most
vulnerable citizens. Such housing
also is a proven job creator.
After creating the LIHTC in the
Tax Reform Act of 1986, Congress
made it permanent in 1993. The
LIHTC is credited with producing
more than 2.8 million affordable
rental homes and generating 96,000
jobs a year. The tax credit is used
to develop and preserve a variety
of residential property types that
range in size and location–they’re
built in rural, suburban and urban
areas in all corners of the nation.
LIHTC properties can be multistory
buildings, garden-style
apartments, single-family leasepurchase,
single room occupancies
(SROs) and the adaptive re-use of
historic buildings. They serve all
sectors of the nation’s population,
including veterans, the elderly,
the homeless, people with special
needs, families and others.
At a time when an
unprecedented 11 million renter
households—more than one in four
of all renters in the U.S.—spend
more than half of their monthly
income on rent, tools that have
proven successful in creating
much-needed affordable rental
housing, such as the LIHTC are
more important than ever. And
in that context, as tax reform
discussions continue in Congress,
it’s essential that the LIHTC be
protected, retained and improved.
This report provides details
about the LIHTC and its value
to the nation. You’ll understand
the perspective of residents,
developers, investors and state
officials. You will be introduced to
properties from the Gulf Coast in
Florida to the Pacific Northwest in
Washington; from New England to
Texas. You’ll read about affordable
housing developments in innercity
Boston and Los Angeles, as
well as rural North Dakota and
Vermont. You’ll learn how a former
college in Kansas and a historic
military fort in Minnesota both
provide affordable housing, thanks
to the tax credit. You’ll see how
the LIHTC provides housing for
veterans in Indiana and Michigan
and formerly homeless residents
in Colorado. You’ll read how the
LIHTC aided with rebuilding
after tornadoes in Missouri and
Alabama and a hurricane in
New Jersey. You’ll see how the
tax credit provides housing for
disabled adults in California and
residents with special needs in
New York. You’ll be exposed to
myriad examples of energy-efficient
improvements and how the tax
credit helps preserve existing
affordable rental housing.
In short, you’ll see how the
three-decade history of the LIHTC
is what one developer calls,
“probably the most successful
public-private partnership of the
20th and 21st centuries.” Over
the past 30 years, the LIHTC has
created jobs and housing, changed
lives and neighborhoods, and been
at the forefront of success in both
housing and business.
The following pages tell the
story of that success through the
statistics, people and places that
make it so.
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