Budget Deal in Congress Includes Help for Affordable Housing
In a news release, Ms. Cantwell called the provision a “down payment”
that “will help us deal with the tremendous deficit we have in affordable housing.”
Still, according to industry analysts, the measure won’t come close to closing the gap created by the tax cut at a time when close to half of renters struggle to pay their rent
and homelessness is rising in cities around the country.
As home building declined sharply and millennials entered the work force, the number of renters surged by about one million a year — the largest
increase since the baby-boom generation came of age in the 1970s, according to the Joint Center for Housing Studies at Harvard University.
It funds virtually all of the nation’s subsidized rental housing and created a sprawling industry of affordable-housing developers
that now makes up a vital piece of the safety net — especially in high-cost cities like New York, San Francisco and Seattle.
The low-income housing tax credit was created in 1986 as part of Congress’s last sweeping tax overhaul and has grown into a $9 billion-a-year program.
By CONOR DOUGHERTYMARCH 23, 2018
When Congress voted last year to sharply reduce corporate income taxes, it undermined the nation’s largest subsidized housing program.
Lower corporate tax rates made the credit less useful, alarming developers and agencies
that provide housing for the poor in rural America and large cities.