Tax Credit Advisor Article Archives

As the economy continues recovering from the Great Recession, the number of families and individuals who rent their homes instead of buying is growing.

Artspace is not the only organization dedicated to providing affordable living and working opportunities for artists.

When the subject of workforce housing is invoked in any discussion, we tend to think of police officers, firefighters, teachers and other municipal employees. But there is a national nonprofit organization with an ever-expanding footprint and sphere of influence that is enlarging that definition to another cohort its leaders consider critical to a healthy and complete urban environment: Artists.

Massachusetts has improved and expanded access to affordable housing over the past quarter century – and become an innovative public policy leader – in part, through the efforts of Aaron Gornstein.

For centuries during the late Middle Ages, tales were told of the realm of Prester John, whose empire of milk and honey lay among the heathen somewhere beyond the horizon. Expeditions were mounted in search of this Most Christian King, reputed to breed unicorns, whose prized horns were brought back by intrepid explorers.

“The disparate impact decision,” says Josh Cohen, Development Director of Beacon Communities based in Boston, Massachusetts, “bolsters the notion that creating affordable housing in areas of opportunity can be a business opportunity for affordable housing developers.

“Pay For Success” (PFS) Financing Structures have become one of the hot new tools in the emerging social impact investing field and increasingly a burgeoning opportunity for affordable housing owners and social service providers.

With some difficult puzzles, you sit sorting through the pieces seemingly forever. Can it be that there is nothing here that fits? And then, eventually, you find a fit. It was right there in front of you all the time.

In the 15-year history of the program, there has been nothing particularly funny about New Markets Tax Credits. But that could soon change—at least if a public-private civic consortium in western New York State gets its wish. Their aspiration is clear and direct: We Want To Be the Laughingstock of the Nation.

Michael Rubinger was heavily influenced by John F. Kennedy’s poetic words, “Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.” Michael studied international relations and was planning to travel the world assisting developing countries. When America’s society started fracturing in the mid-60s, he felt it was more important to focus on improving the home front, which he did by teaching math and social studies at a public school in Harlem for two years.

Despite bipartisan appeal, NMTCs may be trapped in a strange new status quo in which such tax credits are routinely allowed to die, only to be revived—or not revived— while evidence of their success remains unchallenged.

What’s the number one issue on the minds of affordable housing’s top executives?