icon Blueprint for January

Starting the New Year with Strength and Determination

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3 min read

It’s finally here.

Seems like we’ve been waiting for 2021 to arrive for much longer than a year, doesn’t it? I mean, who can blame us? COVID-19. Economic crash. Disruptions to work and school routines. Restaurants closed. Curfews in some cities and states. Budget impasses. Election drama. And to make matters worse, 2020 was a leap year. We had one whole extra day to wallow in our collective misery.

Like so many families, my own lost a loved one to COVID-19. I know there are more than 300,000 other families in America missing someone they lost to the pandemic.

Goodbye and good riddance to 2020. I wouldn’t be upset if nothing that happened in 2020 ever repeated itself in history. Well, except maybe a few things. The kind of things that happen when we are faced with hardships and uncertainties. The growing through hard times kind of moments.

There’s an article in this issue discussing how the pandemic economy had very different impacts depending on the sectors. Retail and service industries were of course decimated, while others have rebounded more quickly or even thrived.

One example is the solar energy industry. According to a report from Bloomberg New Energy Finance, solar photovoltaic cell sales were up 21 percent in 2020. The BNEF report attributed the huge increase to people staying home during the pandemic and starting more home improvement projects.

Like most folks, I’m ready to start the new year off on the right foot. Exercise more. Eat less. Be more patient with the curve balls life throws at me. And why not be optimistic about 2021? It certainly can’t be worse than last year.

Things are looking up. COVID vaccinations are well underway. The election drama is behind us. Even the short winter days are starting to get longer little by little!

So, as we start the new year, we ought to focus on the brighter days ahead, but also do our best to keep any of the good we possibly can from the hardships of the past year. Let’s harness the strength we gained last year facing adversity and use it to accomplish the tasks we have ahead for 2021.

What does all this mean for affordable housing? That’s a good question, and one we’ll continually try to answer in each issue of Tax Credit Advisor. Read on to learn more about where developers may be looking to build in 2021 and beyond. Don’t expect the standard answers you’ve seen in the past, because those answers seem to be an ever-moving target.

If there’s one thing 2020 taught us, it’s to be resilient. To expect the unexpected. To roll with the punches and make the best of it. Now that it’s 2021, let’s pair those lessons we learned with the optimism of a new year, and let’s move forward.

Paul Connolly
Executive Editor

Tax Credit Advisor welcomes reader comments. Contact the executive editor at pconnolly@dworbell.com.