December 27, 2019 By: Christine Serlin
AHF, industry leaders count down the news events of the year.
2019 was a relatively quiet year for the affordable housing industry, unlike the previous several years when effects of tax reform and the 2016 presidential election dominated the news. Even so, the year brought us new trends and notable changes.
Affordable Housing Finance, with help from its Editorial Advisory Board members, takes a look at 10 news events for the industry from the past year.
1. Growing Focus on Affordable Housing
The affordability crisis made national and local headlines during 2019.
“There’s increased national interest in increasing the supply of affordable housing,” says Bart Mitchell, president and CEO of The Community Builders. “Everyone is talking about it, from presidential candidates with housing plans to more congressional sponsors to increase low-income housing tax credit (LIHTC) resources than ever before.”
Affordable housing has been a key talking point for 2020 Democratic presidential contenders, even coming front and center during a primary debate in November. It also was a hot topic in local elections across the nation this past fall.
The LIHTC continues to receive broad bipartisan support in Congress. The Affordable Housing Credit Improvement Act (S. 1703 and H.R. 3077) has 197 co-sponsors in the House—125 Democrats and 72 Republicans—and 37 co-sponsors in the Senate—24 Democrats, 11 Republicans, and two Independents. One of the bill’s provisions, the permanent 4% LIHTC rate, was in play up to the last minute in budget negotiations in mid-December but was abruptly pulled at the last minute....................Read More
December 5, 2019 By: Sibley Fleming
Developers and service providers are grappling with the affordable senior housing dilemma.
By 2029, 54 percent of the nation’s 14.4 million middle-income seniors won’t be able to afford private-pay seniors housing options for long before they exhaust their resources and become eligible for Medicaid. Out-of-pocket costs for assisted living will be $60,000 by then. Those telling—and sobering—statistics are key findings of a study released this past spring by the University of Chicago’s National Opinion Research Center and sponsored by the National Investment Center for Seniors Housing & Care, a Washington, D.C.-based research organization. The key takeaway? There is a huge need for affordable senior housing and care for middle-income seniors.
Pearlon Oyster Bay
“If you think of this as multifamily housing in the workforce world, this is workforce housing, but for seniors,” said Beth Burnham Mace, NIC chief economist and director of outreach.
The study sent a shot over the bow of the senior housing industry, which has to date been most prolific at providing seniors housing solutions in the form of continuing care retirement communities for the top 20 percent of the market and the government-subsidized bottom 20 percent.
Providing this much-needed housing and related services has become the talk of seniors housing conferences, policy and finance summits. “Everybody is paying attention to this market. But nobody has quite figured out how to get their arms around this market, what it’s going to look like,” said John Cochrane, CEO of Pleasanton, Calif.-based HumanGood, which owns and operates 21 continuing care communities serving primarily the upper income demographic as well as 96 affordable senior housing communities......................Read More
