Don't 'Kill' The Low Income Housing Tax Credit, Expand it

September 22, 2017                     By:  Jane Graff, Michael Bodaken, Patrick Sheridand & Terry Parker

Leaders of four of the largest affordable housing nonprofits make the case for the LIHTC.

In a recent op-ed published in The Wall Street Journal (“Kill the Loopholes, Including the One for Low-Income Housing”), authors Chris Edwards and Vanessa Brown Calder argue that the low-income housing tax credit, the most successful tool we have to create affordable housing, should be eliminated. This idea would have detrimental impacts for millions of people nationwide.

As the leaders of the country’s largest affordable housing nonprofits, we know that the housing credit is a critical incentive for private investment in housing that is affordable. Over the last 30 years, virtually all affordable rental housing in this country has been built or rehabilitated with housing credit support.

The housing credit should be expanded, not “killed.” Currently more than one in four renters pays more than half of their income on housing costs, and waiting lists for affordable housing are already years long—many aren’t even open to new applicants, the backlog is so enormous. Without building more affordable housing with the housing credit, these problems will only grow worse. Moreover, Matthew Desmond, in his Pulitzer Prize-winning book Evicted, demonstrates that housing stability is the gateway to breaking the cycle of poverty....................Read More