Tax Credit Advisor Article Archives

“We’re seeing tons of technology but you still need someone to watch it,” asserts Brian Klansky, Vice President of Sales and Marketing for Bright Power, Inc., an 11-year-old energy management company in New York City. “Often you’ll see a project whose energy saving systems doesn’t work over time because no one’s monitoring it. By Year-Three or Four, you’re almost back to ground zero.”

The crumbling Worcester Vocational High School loomed over Worcester, Mass. The 117,000-square-foot complex was one of the most prominent abandoned buildings this state’s housing officials had ever seen. Broken, partly boarded-up windows stared out at local landmarks, like the Worcester Art Museum and Worcester Memorial Auditorium, along with several major streets and an elevated highway.

The budget battle between Congress and the White House is heating up, and among possible casualties are two housing programs that seem to enjoy strong bipartisan support.

On June 24, Harvard University published its annual State of the Nation’s Housing Report and the researchers found much to be concerned with. Housing starts are down and homeownership rates are at a 20-year low. Our sector of the market is fairing better in some respects as multifamily vacancy rates continue to decline and rents increase, but these same trends are putting greater pressure on low and moderate- income renters.

On July 8, 2015, the Department of Housing & Urban Development (HUD) issued a final rule on the procedures that must be followed by localities with regard to Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing. The rule directs HUD program participants to take significant actions to integrate all zip codes in a particular locality. The rule refines the prior approach by replacing the analysis of impediments (AI) with a fair housing assessment of localities, and was issued almost immediately after the Supreme Court held that the Fair Housing Act allows “disparate impact” claims.

When HUD took its seat at the President’s table back in 1965, issues of race and equality were on the front pages daily, and the challenges facing American cities had become a priority. One of HUD’s first Secretaries, George Romney, embodied the spirit that it could tackle those challenges. He championed desegregation and a strong urban policy emphasizing region-wide solutions.

If you attended NH&RA’s Spring Forum in Los Angeles in May or just took a glance at the event’s agenda, you will recognize many of the topics covered in this month’s issue. A paramount objective of both a trade association and a trade magazine is to capture the current mindset of an industry, address the issues of greatest concern and facilitate the sharing of experience and innovative thinking across company lines. I view the association and the magazine as partners in comprehensive communication.

In thermodynamics, entropy is, among other things, a measure of a system’s granular complexity – and in thermodynamics it is a fundamental law that entropy and complexity always increase.

On June 11, the House Financial Services Committee hosted a HUD Oversight Hearing. Committee Chair Jeb Hensarling’s (R-TX) opening statement quoted President Lyndon Johnson: “We have declared unconditional war on poverty. Our objective is total victory.”

The Obama Administration has answered that question with an ambitious focus on energy efficiency. It launched the Better Buildings Challenge in 2011 and aims to reduce energy use among buildings, from residential to commercial to public, by 20% over the next 10 years. The Department of Energy, which spearheads the initiative, convened more than 900 participants for the 2015 Better Buildings Summit in Washington, DC, this May.

In accordance with congressional mandates, every state issues a Qualified Allocation Plan (QAP) explaining the criteria it will use in awarding Federal 9% Low Income Tax Credits (LIHTC). The topic is particularly hot because the U.S. Supreme Court is expected to issue its decision in Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs v. The Inclusive Communities Project, Inc., which involves Texas’ allocation of LIHTCs, and focuses on whether the Fair Housing Act of 1968 outlaws only intentional discrimination.

Whenever politics, public policy and competing interests converge, the effects can be explosive
and controversial.