Administration Releases Tax Plan Outline

April 28, 2017                               By: National Council of State Housing Agencies

The Trump Administration released April 26 a one-page outline of tax reform principles and objectives it intends to pursue this year. The document calls for reductions in individual and corporate tax rates to be paid for, at least in part, by economic growth the Administration estimates the proposed changes will create and by eliminating tax deductions and other tax "breaks."

Specifically, the proposed changes include lowering the corporate tax rate (including for pass-through corporations) to 15 percent from 35 percent and the tax rate for top individual earners to 35 percent from 39.6 percent. The proposal also calls for the elimination of the estate tax, Alternative Minimum Tax, and Affordable Care Act surtax on high incomes...............Read More

Why Affordable Apartments Are Hard for Low-Income Renters to Find

April 28, 2017                         By:   Kim Betancourt

Kim Betancourt, who oversees economics and market research for Fannie Mae's multifamily platform, talks about her team's latest findings on barriers to affordability.

Fannie Mae’s multifamily economics team studies the dynamics of rental markets nationwide. In its Multifamily Market Commentary for March, the team notes that it expects nearly 404,000 apartment to come online in 2017. That’s up from approximately 343,000 deliveries last year. However, just a handful of metropolitan markets account for a disproportionate share of the nationwide total.

In 2016, Boston, Los Angeles, New York City, San Francisco and Washington, D.C., combined accounted for about 79,000 of the total apartment deliveries. This year, they will have around 81,000 deliveries......Read More

'Affordable for Whom?' The Disconnect Between Need and Allotment of Affordable Units

April 21, 2017                             By: Multifamily Executive

Cities across the U.S. are struggling with the need for housing affordable enough for local residents. Many housing authorities help developers assign a number of units in a building to different income "bands," targeting residents across the spectrum of the area median income.

535 Carlton Avenue in Brooklyn

New buildings offering affordable housing options often see an overwhelming amount of applications. However, when those applications are broken down to consider the number of people applying for each income band, it's clear the demand doesn't match the supply........Read More

Woodlawn Station Groundbreaking Highlights The Need For HUD Grants

April 20, 2017                              By:  Chuck Sudo

The skies were overcast and threatened rain on a blocklong stretch of 63rd Street in Woodlawn yesterday. But the collective smiles on the faces of dignitaries and guests at the groundbreaking of Woodlawn Station could have parted the clouds and forced the sun to shine.

Preservation of Affordable Housing President and CEO Aaron Gornstein, POAH Chicago Region Vice President Bill Eager and Ald. Willie Cochran (20th).

Woodlawn Station, at 63rd Street and Cottage Grove Avenue, is the latest development by the Preservation of Affordable Housing in the neighborhood that started with the 2008 acquisition of the former Chicago Housing Authority Grove Parc apartments. POAH's development activity was kick-started in 2012, when it was awarded a $30.5M HUD Choice Neighborhood Grant to build affordable housing in Woodlawn — a grant that is on the chopping block under President Donald Trump's proposed budget.  ................Read More

Ben Carson tours Miami housing complex built with grant Trump wants eliminated

April 13, 2017                             By: Douglas Hanks
Housing Secretary Ben Carson toured a Miami apartment complex Thursday that one of his hosts said wouldn’t exist without the federal program that the White House wants eliminated.

Linda McMahon, head of the Small Business Administration, and HUD Secretary Dr. Ben Carson share a laugh at the coffee bar at Versailles. C.M. GUERRERO

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/miami-dade/article144518369.html#storylink=cpy

“This building wouldn’t have come to fruition without the HOME fund,” Stephanie Berman, president of Carrfour Supportive Housing, said a few steps from Carson during his tour of one of the charity’s Miami properties, the Villa Aurora apartments.

The $950 million HOME program would end under President Donald Trump’s proposed 2018 budget for Housing and Urban Development, part of a 13 percent cut for the department that Carson heads........Read More

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/miami-dade/article144518369.html#storylink=cpy

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/miami-dade/article144518369.html#storylink=cpy

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/miami-dade/article144518369.html#storylink=cpy

DC Fund Supports Affordable Housing As LIHTC Market Fluctuates

April 17, 2017                              By: Erika Morphy

WASHINGTON, DC--The Low Income Housing Tax Credit market is in a state of flux as prices rest but the District's Housing Production Trust Fund is providing gap money for deals.

Petworth Place

WASHINGTON, DC–The Low Income Housing Tax Credit market is in a state of flux right now for reasons we will discuss in a moment. One exception, though, has been The District, where LIHTC deals are still routinely closing — assuming they are viable transactions — will little difficulty.

For that, the market can thank the District’s Housing Production Trust Fund, Greysteel Senior Investment Associate Alicia Orkisz tells GlobeSt.com........Read More

10 Markets Making Affordable Housing Units Available in Better Quality Neighborhoods

April 13, 2017                              By:  Champaign Williams

Affordable housing has a long history of going up in low-income neighborhoods, concentrating those developments in areas with fewer resources. But new research shows that today's affordable housing policies are driving more affordable housing into desirable high-quality neighborhoods.

Affordable housing trends are fast changing as developers receive incentives and tax credits to build affordable housing units for low-income Americans within nicer, less racially and financially segregated neighborhoods.......Read More

Leaders of the Pack

April 11, 2017                            By: Donna Kimura
This year’s AHF 50 developers started construction on more than 25,000 affordable housing units in 2016

Affordable housing developers had a robust 2016, but any momentum that may have been building looks to be significantly thwarted in the future.

The NRP Group, in partnership with Linda Krasienko, President of A Place For Us Development, opened A Place for Us in Cleveland for leasing in October. The Cleveland for leasing in October. The Cleveland development is providing 55 units of affordable housing for seniors 55 and older. The NRP Group tops this year's AHF 50 developers list.

An overwhelming 70% of the developers surveyed believe affordable housing finance conditions will be worse by the end of 2017, while only 14% expect conditions to be better and 16% expect conditions to remain the same.........Read More

NLIHC Members from Across the Country Lobby Congress to Support Affordable Housing

April 10, 2017                                         National Low Income Housing Coalition

The core message of the 2017 NLIHC Lobby Day was the importance of affordable housing programs for those with the lowest incomes and the devastating impacts President Donald Trump’s proposed budget cuts would have on people and communities nationwide. Advocates emphasized the critical role federal housing dollars play in their communities and the need to increase those investments, rather than limit them. By meeting in person with members of Congress and sharing stories of those who have benefited from federally funded affordable housing, advocates personalized the nation’s affordable housing crisis and the need to support programs that would benefit the nearly 10 million extremely low income households struggling to pay rent each month and the half-million individuals who are homeless.More than 130 NLIHC members visited their Congressional delegations on Tuesday, April 4, the final day of the 2017 NLIHC Housing Policy Forum, to discuss the importance of affordable housing and the need to protect and expand HUD and USDA-Rural Development budgets. Advocates representing 29 states visited more than 85 House and 40 Senate offices. They brought with them copies of recent NLIHC publications and data as well as the Campaign for Housing and Community Development Funding (CHCDF) report, A Place to Call Home.......Read More

These Numbers Prove the Affordable Housing Crisis is Nationwide

April 9th, 2017                              By: Mike Rothschild

Over the last ten years, a record number of Americans have entered into the rental market. But even as demand for affordable - which is defined as when cost doesn't exceed 30 percent of the median family income in a given area - rental units are skyrocketing, the supply is either stagnant or plummeting.

It's a crisis that's not restricted to expensive coastal cities - it's happening everywhere.

"[T]he last decade has seen nine million Americans become new renters, the largest 10-year gain in history," according to real estate website Curbed. This increase has "[pushed] the percentage of households that rent from 31 to 37 percent, the highest level since the Johnson administration......Read More

OK'd State Budget Has 421-A Replacement

April 11, 2017                       By:  Rayna Katz
NEW YORK CITY—The new fiscal year plan also includes substantial funding to back the creation of affordable and supportive housing.

Cuomo: "The  FY 2018 budget that advances the core progressive principles that built New York."

NEW YORK CITY—The wait is over. Legislation to replace 421-a has been passed. The 2018 state budget—which includes new rules for affordable housing development—has been passed. In addition, the $153.1 billion earmarked for fiscal year 2018 spending is set to include $2.5 billion in funding to advance the creation or preservation of 100,000 affordable and 6,000 supportive housing units.

Under the FY 2018 budget—as part of the new “Affordable New York” Housing program—developers of new residential projects with 300 units or more in certain areas of Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens would be eligible for a full property tax abatement for 35 years if the project creates a specific number of affordable rental units and meets newly established minimum construction wage requirements.............Read More

Trump Budget Will Increase Homelessness, End Federal Role in Community Development

March 16, 2017              By: Douglas Rice - Senior Policy Analyst           rice@cbpp.org

President Trump’s fiscal year 2018 budget for the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) proposes deep cuts in every state in rental assistance for families and other aid for the nation’s poorest urban and rural communities, which would increase homelessness and other hardship across the country.

Overall, the President requests $40.7 billion for HUD programs in 2018, $6.2 billion (13 percent) below 2016 funding, and about $7.5 billion (15 percent) below the 2017 levels in the bills that the House and Senate appropriations committees approved last summer. (The President and Congress have yet to finalize a 2017 budget, but the continuing resolution that’s funding the government for this year runs out on April 28.)....Read More