Tax Credit Advisor Article Archives

Thanks for picking up this month’s copy of Tax Credit Advisor. I’m the new executive editor, taking over from Marty Bell who is enjoying a well-earned retirement after bringing you news about industry innovation. Marty left some big shoes to fill, and it’s my goal to build on his efforts to give you the information and analysis you need to help you identify opportunities in your sector of the market. NH&RA is here to help you build your business, and our team wants to make this magazine and all our other content well worth your memberships and subscriptions.

Before the emergence of the Coronavirus advocates for the federal Rehabilitation Tax Credit, known as the Historic Tax Credit (HTC), were seeking several important legislative changes. HTC developments, like many other construction-related tax credits, have struggled during COVID-19 due to statutory and regulatory deadlines, decreased investor appetite and construction delays, adding new reforms to the wish list and making others now more important than ever.

Conservatives often find themselves with two conflicting impulses on housing. They support open markets and property rights and are thus sympathetic to the cause of weakening zoning laws and encouraging construction of different building types.

Barack Obama famously told House Republicans in 2009 that “elections have consequences.”  While we do not know what the results will be once the polls close on November 3 (or even when we will know who actually won) we do know that this particular election will be very consequential.

In response to the myriad of presidential tweets, op-eds and administration actions, we thought it was time to set the record straight on fair housing. The duty to affirmatively further fair housing was enshrined into law in the landmark Fair Housing Act of 1968. We, as a country and as a government, have yet to live up to the ideals of that law’s provision, despite our unchanged obligation to do so.

Since the 1930s, nearly all cities and towns have implemented some form of zoning to separate uses. Retail is put apart from housing, which is put apart from offices, and so on.

If the pandemic itself doesn’t decide the upcoming election, the voters’ judgment of their elected officials’ policy responses to its consequences will. And voters’ pandemic experiences are wildly diverse based on many things – most especially on their housing, what it is and where it is.

Any business or industry as affected by government regulation and legislative decision-making as affordable housing has a vested interest in engaging elected officials and encouraging its constituent voters to exercise their rights.

The Pittsburgh Athletic Association building, more than a century old, has been called a structure with good bones, gracious and elegant. Presidents have spoken there. Stately weddings have been held within. There was a two-story swimming pool on its third floor. Now, after years of deterioration, Historic Tax Credits (HTC) are being used to bring it back to its old grandeur.

The Merchants National Bank building in Mobile, AL, has experienced many obstacles since its opening in 1929. For example, the 1929 market crash occurred within weeks of opening, it is currently relaunching through the extensive disruption of a pandemic and has weathered dozens of hurricanes in its nearly 100 years of existence. The $45 million rehab is trying to ensure this historic building and the buildings that surround it can endure for another century.

This is the motivating statement behind former Vice President Joe Biden’s housing policy plan, and he has made clear that it is a central and essential part of his presidential candidate platform.

One major difference between the current recession and the one that occurred a decade ago is that major depository institutions are financially stable and providing much needed capital to the communities they serve.