The Terner Center for Housing Innovation at the University of California Berkeley published The Cost of Fragmentation: A Comparison of State Affordable Housing Finance Governance Systems, a report analyzing how states structure and administer affordable housing programs.
- The analysis covers all 50 states and includes case studies of Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New York, North Carolina, and Oregon, exploring how governance models affect development costs, application processes, and construction timelines.
- The affordable housing programs the report considers in its analysis are the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit, HOME Investment Partnerships, National Housing Trust Fund, Community Development Block Grant, and tax-exempt private activity bond issuance.
- Key Findings:
- States have an average of 2.5 agencies administering these programs.
- In 78 percent of states, housing finance agencies oversee at least three programs.
- Only two states do not have their HFA allocate LIHTC.
- Each additional public funding source results in an average cost increase of $20,460 per source, per unit.
- The report concludes that reducing fragmentation and investing in coordinated, high-capacity staff can streamline processes and accelerate affordable housing production.
