Steve Gold, The Disability Odyssey continues

Progress is slow but steady. In previous Information Bulletins, we explained how the Low Income Housing Tax Credits were NOT being targeted to people with the lowest incomes. Don't get too excited, because nirvana has not YET been achieved, but the 2006 data shows some small progress. However, once again, there are tremendous discrepancies among the states.

As background, each year each State's Housing Finance Agency receives a per capita amount of housing tax credits from the IRS that a State can award. Each year, each State must publish a "Qualified Allocation Plan" in which "points" are awarded to developers of rental properties who bid to receive the LIHTC.

Please remember that the "demand" for LIHTCs exceeds the supply by two to three to one. Therefore, each State could [if the State wanted to] award "points" for projects that "target" units to persons whose incomes are either at the SSI level (Pennsylvania, for example, does that) or at < 30% AMI. Clearly, developers want these LIHTC so badly and they are so competitive that developers will agree to target to the lowest income people IF the State Housing Finance Agency provides an incentive to target the lowest income people! [Remember, SSI is at about 18% of the AMI, so we really need to target at the SSI level.]

Advocates: whether a State Housing Finance Agency awards points depends on your advocacy skills! If your State's QAP does not award extra points to developers who agree to target a percentage of the units to the lowest income [and agree to make those units fully accessible], then developers will not do it.

Here is the list by State [from the 2006 NCSHA Annual Survey Results] and the % of the units targeted < 30% of the AMI:

Alabama........................0%
Alaska ........................0%
Arizona .......................0%
Arkansas.......................7%
California................... 10%
Colorado...................... 3%
Connecticut................... 9%
Delaware...................... 4%
D. C........................ N/AV
Florida....................... 2%
Georgia....................... 2%
Hawaii........................ 2%
Idaho........................ 10%
Illinois (Chicago)........... 10%
Illinois (non-Chic)........... 0%
Indiana....................... 8%
Iowa.......................... 0%
Kansas........................ 0%
Kentucky...................... 7%
Louisiana..................... 0%
Maine......................... 0%
Maryland..................... 15%
Massachus.................... 14%
Michigan..................... 7%
Minnesota.................... 30%
Mississippi................... 0%
Missouri....................N/AV
Montana....................... 2%
Nebraska...................... 0%
Nevada........................ 1%
New Hampshire................. 0%
New Jersey....................31%
New Mexico.................... 2%
New York ..................... 6%
North Carolina................26%
North Dakota.................. 3%
Ohio....................... N/AV
Oklahoma...................... 0%
Oregon........................ 6%
Pennsylvania.................. 6%
Rhode Island.................. 3%
South Carolina................ 0%
South Dakota.................. 0%
Tennessee..................... 0%
Texas......................... 6%
Utah...........................6%
Vermont...................... 41%
Virginia...................... 0%
Washington ................... 9%
West Virginia................. 0%
Wisconsin .................... 2%
Wyoming ......................10