Mark Olshaker • 15 min read
When the Opportunity Zones program was added to the bipartisan Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, it was presented as a triple bottom line win: helping underserved communities achieve economic growth and build wealth for residents and businesses; bringing a new source of investment dollars into those communities; and offering the new investors an attractive way to defer and even offset capital gains taxes.
Darryl Hicks • 7 min read
Tax Credit Advisor sat down with Bernstein to get his thoughts on the role Opportunity Zones can play to help address the crisis, as well as other policy initiatives that Congress might focus on in 2020 to help generate more affordable housing.
Scott Beyer • 6 min read
The idea behind Opportunity Zones has been to encourage development in poor areas. Inspired by the Enterprise Zone concept championed in the 1980s by congressman Jack Kemp, the Trump Administration law is, according to the IRS website, “Designed to spur economic development and job creation in distressed communities…by providing tax benefits to investors who invest eligible capital into these communities.”
Kaitlyn Snyder • 8 min read
When asked about the December 19, 2019 final Opportunity Zone regulations, Jerome Breed, principal with Miles and Stockbridge P.C., said, “The IRS and Treasury did an excellent job with the final regulations. Of course, if I drafted the rules, I’d be happy with all of them.” John Gahan, partner with Sullivan and Worcester LLP, echoed the sentiment, “We as lawyers would never be completely happy with any set of rules.
Thom Amdur • 6 min read
The enactment of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act and the creation of the Qualified Opportunity Zone Incentive (QOZI) has generated a great deal of activity by investors deploying capital in disinvested neighborhoods.
Mark Olshaker • 10 min read
We hear a lot of conversation these days about the social determinants of health: healthcare itself; education, personal and family stability, neighborhood and environmental safety and prosperity; and social and community context and commitment.
Darryl Hicks • 9 min read
Only a few months after Red Stone Equity Partners was founded in 2007, America suffered its worst economic recession in 80 years. While many companies in the affordable housing business closed, RSEP persevered, and over the next decade, became a leading national equity syndication platform.
Mark Olshaker • 8 min read
REAC inspections, the means by which the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Real Estate Assessment Center evaluates the fitness of HUD-subsidized housing, is being overhauled after 20-odd years.
Mark Fogarty • 6 min read
Mercy Housing has a big footprint, with properties in 33 states and five regions of the country. The affordable housing nonprofit also has a big footprint in the lives of the occupants of those properties, with an extensive, diverse resident services effort that targets five different areas to make a big positive impact on their lives.
Scott Beyer • 5 min read
In recent years, the local political obstacles to adding dense housing are thought by analysts to be overcome with state policy. And often, these policies are “stick”–like in nature: Oregon, in 2019, passed a bill to outlaw single-family zoning in most parts of the state. Legislators in Virginia, California and Maryland have since proposed similar bills. But the “carrot” approach, which involves dangling financial incentives to cities that loosen zoning voluntarily, is also possible.
Scott Beyer • 6 min read
When many Americans think “solar panels,” they still think of an individual array of panels that go on someone’s home. This means they see solar energy as a burdensome process that requires too much time, money and roof space to apply to them. But recently, solar energy has become much more scalable and democratic – via the “Community Solar” model. This has grown in tandem with government subsidies, and could be a good business opportunity for real estate developers or other environmental entrepreneurs who have familiarity with tax credits.
Thom Amdur • 3 min read
As you will read repeatedly in this issue, affordable housing is one of the most effective (and cost-effective) healthcare interventions, particularly for vulnerable populations, like the homeless. Without the stability of an affordable home, it is very difficult to treat the root causes of many common, yet intervenable, illnesses and conditions that plague modern America, whether it be hypertension, diabetes, obesity, asthma, mental illness or a myriad of other societal ills.