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In many new national multi-investor funds closing later this year, projected after-tax returns to so-called economic investors are likely to dip below the once-sacrosanct 7% level, according to syndicators and other sources in the low-income housing tax credit (LIHTC) industry.

For many years, state housing agencies in their qualified allocation plans have strongly promoted the enrichment of new low-income housing tax credit projects with services for residents. This trend has occurred in all types of LIHTC developments – those targeting families, seniors, and persons with special needs.

The multifamily housing sector is going strong in the United States but there’s still an affordability crisis for renters, according to a recent report by the Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University.

In policy-speak, a “food desert” is a low-income area, usually urban, where affordable healthy food is hard to obtain, especially for those without a car. Similarly, a data desert is a low-income neighborhood, community, or multifamily property where in-home high-capacity broadband with Internet access is unavailable, unreliable, or expensive.

When completed next spring, Blue Butterfly Village in the San Pedro section of Los Angeles will be more than just another housing development. Rather, with affordable apartments and supportive services, it will provide a safe and nurturing environment for the special but vulnerable households that will have priority for occupancy: homeless women veterans and their children.

In Worcester, Mass., a former industrial city of 181,000 battered for decades by population and job losses, the federal new markets tax credit is helping to finance the redevelopment of five vacant downtown buildings once used by the local daily newspaper into a new urban education and business center.

The way that Tom Capp and Gorman & Company, Inc. approach the development of multifamily rental housing, historic preservation, and mixed-use real estate projects is to always be on the lookout – for new opportunities, funding sources, and lessons.

Great resident services are good business at Crest Avenue Apartments, in Charleroi, Pa., a community south of Pittsburgh.

The U.S. Departments of Treasury and Housing and Urban Development have established a new partnership designed to stimulate greater use of the Federal Housing Administration’s multifamily risk-share loan program and reduce borrowing costs for developers and owners.

In order to be competitive for new housing subsidies in most jurisdictions, the implementation of a resident services program is practically a threshold requirement. Of course, funding an effective program is a challenge.

Boston Capital planned to launch a new national multi-investor fund in July with a projected after-tax IRR to investors of 6.75%, according to Tom Pereira. The fund is expected to close in October.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) estimates that the shortfall in federal appropriations for the Public Housing Operating and Capital Funds has created a backlog of more than $25 billion in needed physical improvements to the nation’s 1.2 million public housing units, or roughly $24,000 per apartment.