Tax Credit Advisor Article Archives

Entire building sections shipped in on trucks. Walls keeping cold air in during the summer and warm air in during the winter with virtually no leakage and minimal energy costs. These are all components of a modern story of low-income affordable housing in Washington, DC.

California is famous for its low-budget lodging. I stayed in some while traveling the state – little hotels and motels on the roadside that, mixed with the palm trees and desert backdrop, had a noirish feel. They’re a part of California lore, even profiled in that infamous Eagles song.

Once it starts, a thunderstorm is unstoppable: the sunny seeming equilibrium of a moment before becomes a torrent whose cooling reinforces itself, reversing in a few minutes what took hours to build up.

A recently published examination of how to beat the affordable housing squeeze presented by rising demand and falling production reveals how developers think they can maximize production through creative approaches to cutting costs.

As the economic crisis triggered by the Coronavirus extends into its fifth month, I am deeply concerned for the economic well-being of the nation’s low- and moderate-income renters.

Madi Ford is listening. As you will read in this month’s Talking Heads interview (p. 6), her team at MidCity Financial includes a director of community engagement, as well as additional staff committed to listening to the residents and to neighbors.

After consuming bushels of news articles, social media posts and White House Coronavirus briefings over the past several months, I think we have all become amateur epidemiologists.

Headquartered in Bethesda, MD, MidCity Financial Corporation was founded in 1965 by Eugene F. Ford, Sr., an engaged leader and community advocate with a visionary approach to delivering quality multifamily housing to support the diverse needs of local communities.

Three years ago, I published a book that I wrote with Dr. Michael Osterholm, the renowned epidemiologist at the University of Minnesota, entitled, Deadliest Enemy: Our War Against Killer Germs.

Coming into a presidential election year, we knew the outlook for advancing legislation was dismal. Then the Coronavirus stole lives and shuttered businesses across the nation. Then Ahmaud Arbery was murdered by vigilantes while jogging, Breonna Taylor was shot eight times by officers in the middle of the night in her own home, an officer choked George Floyd to death with his knee amidst cries of “I can’t breathe” while three other officers watched, and Rayshard Brooks was shot by police for falling asleep in his car. Legislatively, where do we go from here in the waning months of 2020?

The sudden rise of Coronavirus—and the subsequent four-month shutdown of society—sped up certain technology shifts. Digital communications like Zoom, Skype and Amazon were already bringing disruption to work, education, shopping, medical provision and more.

Because infrastructure always reaches the poorest last, its networks are always uneven. Because the business case for prevention can never be made until the cost of allowing failure is proven, preventive policies arise only after catastrophe.