Tax Credit Advisor Article Archives

Just about any good novelist, playwright or screenwriter will tell you that the way character is revealed is by the choices that character makes. We may define character by action, but every action is preceded by an intent and decision to act, whether that decision takes place three years or a split second in advance. Thus, it is the initial decision that ultimately determines the success or failure of the action, and the higher the stakes of the action, the more interesting the decision becomes.

Along with a little luck, choice is probably the primary determinant of success. It’s also the basis of endless debate. Did our child pick the right spouse? Did our team pick the right draft choice? Why’d you order that dish? You’re voting for who? Yellow? You’re painting this room yellow? You know you look great in that dress.
Just think how much of our daily discussion is triggered by the choices we (or others) make.

In an anecdote that has become urban folklore, the famous Roaring 20s pilferer Willie Sutton was asked, “Why do you rob banks?” And he responded, “It’s where the money is.”

The Low Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) has traditionally been the driving force behind creating equity in the affordable housing industry. However, this industry is also developing new and innovative ways to finance affordable housing and community development including soft debt, philanthropic, non-bank debt and social impact financing.

State Housing Finance Agencies (HFAs) are required to perform regular monitoring reviews of Low Income Housing Tax Credit-funded projects. A Regulation states that without a monitoring procedure, States are not authorized to allocate credits. The HFA or a private contractor may carry out the monitoring.

If Michael Costa hadn’t become a successful real estate developer, he might have played Major League Baseball. Tax Credit Advisor sat down with Costa to discuss his current passions and priorities.

Hometown boys, vision, persistence, patience, creativity, and business acumen—and tax credits—are transforming the Pizitz, a department store built in 1923 and empty since 1988, into a new landmark for downtown Birmingham, Alabama’s rejuvenated Second Avenue North corridor.

For more than a century, 3010 Apartments has been home to some of the most vulnerable people in St. Louis, Mo.
The landmark building maintains hints to its history — the community room was once an ornate chapel. Common areas glow with the light from restored stained glass windows. This March, 3010 Apartments began a new life , welcoming residents with a variety of special needs to 58 new, sparkling one-bedroom apartments. This historic restoration is the centerpiece of an expansive effort to restore vitality to the city’s Midtown neighborhood, an effort led by the Salvation Army.

In one of the poorest neighborhoods in Washington, DC, Lydia’s House, a project of the nearby Living Word Church, offers 49 one-to-three bedroom apartments; all affordable— church-provided services available to tenants include educational and health programs. And in the Coolidge Corner neighborhood of Brookline, Massachusetts, just outside Boston and in one of the nation’s most trendy, affluent areas, the 1.8 acre site formerly home to St. Aidan’s Parish has become 59-units of mixed income housing, including nine condominiums in the renovated church, with stained glass windows and other unique features.

Debt financing in most cases is the most important component of the capital stack on nearly all affordable housing developments (as is the case in most any type of real estate development.) The average Loan to Value on affordable housing development ranges from 80% to 90%. The housing finance reform debate may continue in Washington with no end in sight. However in the interim, one constant in all discussions on the topic of reform is that any Federal government involvement in housing finance must have as one of its core missions support of multifamily affordable housing.

LIHTC properties need increasing amounts of effective subsidy. Affordable housing always costs money, and the greater the desired affordability, the more money it costs (whether as income subsidy or concessionary financing), and in the main it must come from government. Because most people involved in making these government subsidy decisions are unschooled in development financing, their negotiations tend in the direction of adding policy goals that add cost – and hence increase the effective subsidy (or the net present value cost to government) required.