Tax Credit Advisor Article Archives

Rick Holliday and his colleagues at Factory_OS aren’t very ambitious. They just want to change the way housing is built in this country.

While reading on a recent flight back to Washington, I was really moved by two feature articles that together put into context how far we have come as a country in alleviating poverty – and how far we still have to go.

” I grew up in a family of ten in the Kennedy era. My dad, who was in construction, always said to me, ‘You need to do something good for society.’”

” I came of age during Vietnam and the Civil Rights struggle, thinking about how I could do something of social value,” Lyndel J. “Joe” Wishcamper told Tax Credit Advisor in 2015. “I am very lucky that I had the opportunity to go into affordable housing; that it draws on my skill sets. And when I hire people, I look for those same values: passion not only for the business, but for the work.”

For 24 years, Albert Rex has been a key player in America’s historic preservation movement.
As a consultant, he has guided developers, lenders, investors and others through the complex process of getting projects approved for Federal and State Historic Rehabilitation Tax Credits (HTC).

The acquisition and rehabilitation of affordable housing (acquisition/rehab) may appear like a recent concept as many of these projects are nearing the end of their affordable compliance period, but it is a well-used development strategy.

With the mid-September release of Treasury’s Housing Reform Plan, the administration has presented its exit strategy for GSE conservatorship, which may be summarized as ‘death sentence commuted, eligible for parole in a few years,’ and mapped out a strategy to do exactly that without legislation.

Many polarities have been drawn in the NIMBY vs. YIMBY debate over whether or not to build more housing. It’s seen as a battle between rich and poor, homeowners and renters, white people and ethnic minorities and those with suburban versus urban mindsets.

In Newport, RI, where it often seems easier to park a yacht than a car, you can, and if it is a property dating back to the nineteenth century you can use Historic Tax Credits along with Low Income Housing Tax Credits to help preserve it for its elderly residents.

Piggybacking, layering multiple tax credit awards or other financing sources to make a project work, is a technique familiar to every developer of, and investor in, affordable housing.

This is our annual Historic Tax Credit issue. But this year we’ve expanded the subject a bit to look at using historic credits as a part of multi-credit deals.

In a surprise move, news reports indicate President Trump is about to announce a new effort    to address homelessness in California.