Strategies and Tools for Preserving Low Income Housing Tax Credit Properties

Abstract

The Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) program is the largest affordable rental housing program in the United States, creating over three million units since the program was created in 1986. While the LIHTC program continues to make critical contributions towards meeting the nation’s affordable housing needs, thousands of LIHTC units are exiting the program and converting to market-rate rents, at a time when more than a third of all renter households in the United States are rent-burdened. As of 2015, close to 50,000 LIHTC units had exited the program nationwide, and the status of an additional 200,000 LIHTC units is unknown because of inconsistent state oversight. Without intervention, thousands more units are likely to disappear from our nation’s affordable housing supply in the coming decade.

This article discusses federal and state policies that are fueling the loss of LIHTC properties and offers solutions that federal, state, and local governments, as well as other preservation stakeholders, could implement to advance the preservation of these affordable homes.