Is Anybody Home at HUD?

August 22, 2017                                                          By: Alec MacGillis       

8:00 am

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This story is a collaboration between New York and ProPublica, an independent nonprofit newsroom.

In mid-May, Steve Preston, who served as the secretary of Housing and Urban Development in the final two years of the George W. Bush administration, organized a dinner at the Metropolitan Club in Washington, D.C., for the new chief of that department, Ben Carson, and five other former secretaries whose joint tenure stretched all the way back to Gerald Ford. It was an event with no recent precedent within the department, and it had the distinct feel of an intervention. HUD has long been something of an overlooked stepchild within the federal government. Founded in 1965 in a burst of Great Society resolve to confront the “urban crisis,” it has seen its manpower slide by more than half since the Reagan Revolution. (The HUD headquarters is now so eerily underpopulated that it can’t even support a cafeteria; it sits vacant on the first floor.) But HUD still serves a function that millions of low-income Americans depend on — it funds 3,300 public-housing authorities with 1.2 million units and also the Section 8 rental-voucher program, which serves more than 2 million families; it has subsidized tens of millions of mortgages via the Federal Housing Administration; and, through various block grants, it funds an array of community-uplift initiatives. It is the Ur–government agency, quietly seeking to address social problems in struggling areas that the private sector can’t or won’t solve, a mission that has become especially pressing amid a growing housing-affordability crisis in many major cities.

Despite its Democratic roots, Republican administrations have historically assumed stewardship over HUD with varying degrees of enthusiasm — among the department’s more notable secretaries were Republicans George Romney and Jack Kemp, the idiosyncratic champion of supply-side economics and inner-city renewal...............Read More

Solving affordable housing: Creative solutions around the U.S.

BY PATRICK SISSON JUL 25, 2017, 11:55AM EDT

Artist homes, green buildings, and other ways cities and nonprofits are opening doors to attainable homes

Walk through the downtown of any major U.S. city today and it may seem counterintuitive, in the midst of today’s building boom, that we have a housing shortage. In fact, we’re in the middle of an affordability crisis. According to the Urban Institute, for every 100 extremely low-income households in need of an affordable apartment, only 29 units are available, and researchers at the Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies found that 38.9 million households are cost-burdened, paying more than 30 percent of their income for housing.

SCOTT STREBLE PHotographer

“The simple fact is, in booming economies, it’s faster to hire a software developer than build a new apartment building,” says Kristin Siglin, senior vice president of policy at the Housing Partnership Network.................Read More

LIHTC Front and Center at Senate Finance Committee Hearing

August 1, 2017                          By:  Donna Kimura & Christine Serlin

Key legislators discuss housing crisis, credit program, and tax reform

The low-income housing tax credit (LIHTC), an essential tool in addressing the nation’s housing crisis, must be considered as Congress begins its tax reform efforts, stressed a key lawmaker.

The LIHTC program is a key part of the tax reform puzzle, said Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee, who called the lack of affordable housing a “five-alarm fire across the country.”

Maria Cantwell

During an Aug. 1 committee hearing on affordable housing, Wyden discussed how the longtime LIHTC can remain whole amid the upcoming efforts to overhaul the tax system.

“Reducing the corporate tax rate could reduce the value of the low-income housing tax credit and thus investor demand,” he said. “We’ve heard some talk about the credit declining by up to 17%.”....................Read More

LIHTC Market Settles Down

August 1, 2017                           By: Donna Kimura

Syndicators provide a midyear update on their activities.

After being rocked by the prospect of tax reform, the low-income housing tax credit (LIHTC) market has regained its footing in time for the busy second half of the year.

The flow of deals has picked up, and most syndicators believe that pricing will hold steady through the end of the year.

“After two to three months of almost no activity, the LIHTC market has seemingly reached a new equilibrium as investors have demonstrated a willingness to close on investments that assume a 25% corporate tax rate with no upward and downward tax rate adjusters contemplated,” says Tony Bertoldi, executive vice president at CREA.......................Read More

Mayors agree, Congress should invest in affordable housing

July 31, 2017                                By: Eric Enderlin & Christine Hensley - Opinion Contributors

Last month, the United States Conference of Mayors passed a resolution in support of expanding the Low Income Housing Tax Credit, and calling for increased investment in our nation’s critical affordable housing infrastructure. This acknowledgment of the importance of housing programs by local leaders should not go unnoticed by the U.S. Congress.

@Getty Images

As public officials from two very different places – New York City and Des Moines – we are united by the shared need for safe and affordable housing in our communities. Our Mayors co-sponsored the Housing Credit resolution to underscore the growing shortage of affordable housing in our cities, and in towns and rural areas across the country. We come together today to call upon our congressional leaders to protect and expand federal housing programs.......................Read More

How Chicago Learned Privatizing Public Housing Isn't Enough

July 20, 2017                           By: Debra Bruno

Too many residents got lost in the effort to tear down some of the worst public housing in the nation.

For decades, public housing Chicago has been synonymous with the very worst of what government has provided as shelter for poor people. The 28 high-rises that accounted for much of the public housing in the city became monuments to crime and decay that defied improvement. Stories like the rape and murder of a 7-year-old girl in 1997 made national news. A lack of building maintenance led to deaths: Three children died in a fire because of a broken elevator that prevented firefighters from reaching the 14th floor in time to rescue them.

Tim Boyle/Getty

The city tried, but never managed the fundamental transformation that was so obviously required. Then, slightly more than 15 years ago, Chicago embarked on just such a plan to improve the lives of the families that called public housing home.

Broadly, the new plan introduced three options: vouchers for residents to choose their own homes, mixed-income housing to remove the isolation of many of the most poor residents and improved public housing. But the $1.5 billion Plan for Transformation, which included the demolition of 18,000 units and the rehabilitation or new construction of another 25,000, has had mixed success..................Read More

Affordable multifamily housing 'not just a developer problem'

July 17, 2017                   By: Patrick Hoff

Affordability is the No. 1 issue facing multifamily housing in the Charleston area, and it’s going to take work from multiple parties to take on the problem, according to a panel of industry experts.

Four industry experts spoke about multifamily housing, affordability and cost at the Business Journal's Power Breakfast on Thursday. (photo/Kim McManus)

“I know various municipalities have made efforts to addressing this problem, but there’s still a great divide in terms of what the private sector can do to address that and what the public sector can do to provide a solution,” said Dan Doyle, senior vice president of development for The Beach Co.

Doyle, who was among four panelists at the Charleston Regional Business Journal’s Power Breakfast on Thursday in North Charleston, said municipalities need to provide developers with incentive to build and make the investment in affordable housing rather than just giving land to them................Read More