Op-Ed: Where Do We Go From Here?
By Caitlin Jones
1 min read
By Will Cooper Jr., President and CEO, WNC & Associates, Inc.
Tax Credit Advisor, February 2011: As the low-income housing tax credit (LIHTC) program enters its 25th year, there are many reasons to celebrate. The LIHTC program, the nation’s largest and most successful federal affordable housing program, has had a magical run since 1986. Yet the winds of fiscal and political change are upon it, and both the success and support that the LIHTC program has long enjoyed could easily be eclipsed by this change.
The program was created by the bipartisan Tax Reform Act of 1986 – enacted under a Republican President and Senate and a Democratic House of Representatives. Unlike previous direct federally-funded programs, the LIHTC program was designed by Congress to bring the private and public sectors together in partnership to build and maintain quality affordable rental housing. Few can argue with the LIHTC program’s successes to date: the construction and rehabilitation of more than two million homes for families and seniors of modest means; a national portfolio with a lower foreclosure rate than virtually every other real estate asset class; and, at least until now, the blessing of Congress.
