What Is the Low Income Housing Tax Credit?

[@Loathomar]

I am not sure there is much long term impact from this tax program. The issue in impacted area is that is covers a laughable small percent of low income families who qualify. In LA, the AMI is $64K, making 60% of AMI ~$39K, which accounts for ~30-35% of households, which means 3-3.5M people but there are less then 100K of "affordable apartments" for rent in Los Angeles County, meaning only between 1 in 50 to 1 in 70 people who could qualify for affordable housing will get it. At best we help 2% of the people who we claim to want to help. The other 98% get no help at all and effectively pay higher taxes to pay for other people's housing, even though they earn the same income. It is like putting a bandaid on a compound fracture, I wouldn't say it is "doing nothing" but it clearly is not doing anything substantive to address the real issue.

[@TheIdentifiedPatient]

A 1-bedroom at the Arbors of Bowling Green (Ohio) is $700 before utilities. It is a LIHTC program property. Low income apartment my ass. It's one of the most expensive places in town. Not the most expensive, but much closer to that end of the spectrum than the cheaper side. The landlords (T&R Properties) are more than happy to utilize the government assistance that some tenants are getting in order to jack up the prices. So on top of getting squeezed for all I am worth, I'm also paying the rent for many of my neighbors. Fantastic. Beautiful system we have here. Currently I'm trying to get a 2-bedroom for $530 elsewhere. Compared to the $700 1-bedroom option... why not?

[@juanramirez5355]

Honestly, LIHTC has significant issues. Typically, it does not provide enough funding for a single project to be completed. This makes it so that organizations receiving the funds have to obtain supplementary funding from other programs, where available. Not to mention, that there have been cases where it does not appear that the money was actually used to build housing. I think the US would better off, if we borrowed from the UK, German, Singapore, and French models for low-income housing. Our low-income housing, even after having been privatized during the 70s (i.e., relying on non-profits and for-profit developers rather than Public Housing Authorities), is still fraught with controversy.

[@whollymary7406]

Please write to our Senators and Congress about this so they can improve these programs to make them workable

[@mswilteach]

can you do an update since Biden? How can I start an education and apartment housing for the workforce and economic development professional resource center built-in?

[@mactastic144]

It was introduced twice. S.1136 - Affordable Housing Credit Improvement Act of 2021 was read twice and referred to the Committee on Finance. Nothing came out of it.

[@danceballetacro]

WOW EXCELLENT VIDEO! do you think that middle income families are benefitted by the LIHTC?

[@janetc1666]

Yes

[@shelbytownsend3511]

Hi can you explain how the AMI works. You mentioned at least 40% of the rental units must be reserved for households making 60% or less of the AMI or 20% of the units must be reserved for households making 50% or less of the AMI. How do you determine what AMI amount is for your area and are there stats I can get online that discuss or mentions what the current stance is in terms of the waiting list? I working on a paper for affordable housing and I need to info......or if someone can share where to find AMI and statistical data for MD, DC and VA I could use.

[@janetc1666]

Did you find it ?

[@brianwatson9853]

is this 40% of units required universally? I am a property manager and am showing way less than 40% of my units are not reserved for 60%AMI currently

[@lizw2731]

This is needed however banks are choosing to invest in these projects vs giving loans to minorities which is the first step towards generational wealth. These programs are often in isolated areas and food desserts with little to no opportunity 🙃😔

[@msdony308]

How about getting more rules & taxes for Greedy land lords ! 800- $. & up is NOT low income rent

[@Danilo8208SS]

Depends on where you live

[@thomasjust2663]

How would that help?, higher taxes would just get passed on to the rent's, more rules would restrict the building of more "affordable housing" units which is what happened in NYC, were there is a shortage, politicians are really no good at fixing anything

[@ChosenOne6666]

If the rental unit is less than the 60% AMI the owner would have to raise rents to capitalize the write the off? It doesnt make sense.

[@DragonTalkShow]

Purely from an affordable housing stock perspective, LIHTC is simply not a big enough program. The relative pittance it contributes-and its vulnerability to exploitation by developers-makes it hilariously ill-equipped to solve the massive shorting in affordable housing in the US. Much more robust public housing initiatives will be necessary to provide anything like the necessary stock. Some have even suggested that large municipalities could get the ball rolling since the federal government doesn't seem like it's going to be getting anything together any time soon.

[@elenaisabel95]

explain like I am 5

[@diamondsfurez7456]

Right!

[@johnelliott4656]

Question I am in the military and does our bah and bas count as income for the tax credit

[@AntoineGJohnson]

no, you dont pay taxes so it doesnt count as taxable income

[@dvklaveren]

What I am most worried about is that affordable housing projects make homes that are, well, inhumane. I don't think that it's right for people to live in one-bedroom apartments. Yet, that is the affordable housing that I have seen and often, those are still priced far, far above cost, meaning that for the bare minimum, the tenants are not just paying with their sanity, but also disproportionately with their own money. That creates a quality of life gap between classes that can be hard or even impossible to bridge as people fall into poverty spirals. Just so we don't get terminology confused; bedroom can refer to an area designated to sleep in, but when buying a home, it refers to any room that's a potential bedroom.

[@AlthenaLuna]

I don't understand your statement that one bedroom apartments are "inhumane". I'm a single person (with a cat, but we can share the bed and furniture just fine)...why would or *should* I require more bedrooms for other people that aren't part of my household? Are you intending to talk about families crammed in to spaces too small for the number of people? 'Cause that would make the rest of what you said make more sense, but it's unclear who the people you're referring to is meant to be.

[@123cookies4life345]

The majority of countries offer 1 bedroom apartments, take for example Japan. How is that inhumane?

[@stuiesmb]

I’m having a great time in my current one bedroom apartment. It’s more space than I need honestly.

[@dvklaveren]

@@123cookies4life345 Japan works people to the bone and has an incredibly high suicide rate. Yes.

[@dvklaveren]

@@AlthenaLuna Just so we don't get things confused, bedroom can refer to the place where you sleep, but I housing, it refers to any room that isn't a living room, kitchen or bathroom. How big is your apartment? How much time do you spend outside of it? Do you work from home? Do you have a disability? These are all important factors to consider to know whether you can live with only one room, but those are typically not considered when making affordable housing. I have autism and I used to live in a 2 by 2 meter room (7 foot by 7 foot) without a kitchen, without a living room and with a shared bathroom. I'm afraid that just because some people *can* live like that, it becomes the only way people can live affordably.

[@whollymary7406]

Yes but where is the low income housing I just still see tent cities especially in Portland, Oregon

[@starydancer]

my credit score is 0. I need a place to live

[@MsButterfly57]

It's hard to survive in America let alone a decent credit score. If you pay your rent that is all that should matter.

[@michaelyurkovskiy4308]

LIHTC is actually a very terrible idea. The reason being is it leads to income restricted apartments. While providing housing for low income individuals in theory is a good idea, you are leaving out the middle income earner a chance to live in decent housing, forcing them to move to more low income neighborhoods which can create other problems. Many of these middle income individuals are young working adults, some college grads, that are trying to get started in the work force and live separately from their parents. Tax credits like this work against those individuals. This needs to be abolished

[@nathanaeltekalign2508]

First of all, Income Averaging (which was allowed for new projects beginning in 2018) allowed dwelling units with an imputed income up to 80% of the AMI to be funded by the LIHTC, provided that the average imputed income of all LIHTC-funded units is less than or equal to 60% of the AMI. Second of all, even before 2018, a LIHTC project was allowed to have some units be market-rate. However, the amount of tax credits are reduced accordingly.

[@marioa.i.2726]

What about contracting retail banks balance sheets, and cutting red tape for housing zoning, as restricting house flipping by taxing everyone who sell houses withing 5 years from initial purchase, and by the way making sure that real estate cannot be used as a money laundry vehicles.

[@SaucerJess]

💚

[@Eris-_]

That is a lot of shitty math for tax payers. A discount of 60-70% when the building only needs to be 40-50% low-income. And being in mixed housing has some economic and safety benefits...but also has negative consequences socially-emotionally due to the class separation (low-income residents are often barred from accessing the full amenities of a mixed housing building such as the gym, sauna, pool, etc. and their units are often grouped together on the lowest floors.)

[@diamondsfurez7456]

Well if a low income tenant didn’t pay for those amenities then they have no right to use them

[@woodchuck003]

According to US Census data 614K, new houses were sold in sold and 667K in 2018. The 2018 tax cuts don't seem to be disincentivizing affordable housing through a lower corporate tax. Construction of private units is up from even 5 years ago. Some of the criticism seems unfounded. However, I do think the should be more incentive to build low and medium income housing. www.macrotrends.net/1314/housing-starts-historical-chart

[@LiquidDemocracyNH]

In this channels attempt to endorse a non-partisan solution to our housing crisis, they've mistakenly endorsed a Tax Credit. This Tax Credit, like most, came into existence after an unwillingness among neoliberals to endorse a genuinely public program, in this case public housing. When governments fail to endorse public programs they attempt to meet that same need by providing money directly to private companies. Usually this is in the form of subsidies, but Tax Credits do the same thing from another direction. Instead of handing companies money they reduce how much they're taking from them. The result is the same though, public revenue that could be spent on valuable programs is reduced and unaccountable private companies are handed a free check

[@weregretohio7728]

Just take out the slumlords and we'll be good to go.

[@DrewLonmyPillow]

That's not how tax credits work. Someone always pays for them. Tax credits are just another form of wealth redistribution.

[@gnetkuji]

Good.

[@steveh46]

@@Agtsmirnoff Pay for your own interstate highway system lazy ass.

[@weregretohio7728]

+Agtsmirnoff fuck off you privileged prick.

[@milandraganic2]

"Rental homes"

[@oliverwilson11]

My favourite housing policy is the turn landlords into pet food policy It has two major benefits: 1. More food for pets 2. No more rent, so the incomes of most families in poverty will almost double overnight

[@Arthur-nb7pv]

Programs like the LIHTC are a step in the right direction, but the most significant obstacle to providing adequate housing comes in the form of political barriers like restrictive zoning. Homeowners worried about the effect affordable housing will have on their property values have been blocking new development for decades. As noted at 2:38, the new properties aren't in high opportunity neighborhoods. Lowering the legal barriers to new housing development would accomplish the same goal as the LIHTC, but without the forgone tax revenue and the skewing of new development to low opportunity areas.

[@mauricecarter5831]

One-day I'll win lottery no more monthly payments car payments rent ect !!!

[@1-Peter-4]

If real estate developers and the government really wanted to help the people and the economy, the government would tell the real estate developers that they can no longer sell their homes, their rentals, their apartments or their condos unless they're no longer in business to support the residents but they can continue to build more if they're able to manage the upkeep of their current properties. This would keep the banks and people who are only interested in an investment for a return to stay away and allow the true developers to expand and house the people in need. It would also help to keep prices low and manageable for the developers tenants without the fear of banks or greedy investors raising the price for personal gain. Is this socialism or common sense that should be practiced in any form of governing for the people and by the people? If the government or developers had any morals than this would be standard practice.

[@ktrigg2]

So the ideologues and greedy developers use this to lower my property value.

[@cedricmayfield7058]

Affordable housing development doesn’t lower property value please stop spreading that bullshit