All posts by Thom Amdur

For years, backers of mass transit, roads, bridges, housing, utility grids and dozens of other interests have advocated for generational investments in our nation’s infrastructure.

While it is still a little too soon to say with certainty that the combined infrastructure and budget reconciliation package will be enacted, or for that matter what precisely will be in it, it is the quintessential pastime of policy watchers in Washington like me to speculate.

Mother Theresa once observed, “A life not lived for others is not a life.”

It will shock nobody when I assert that the affordable housing finance system is deeply entwined and enmeshed with the actions and activities of federal government activities.

For more than 35 years, the success of the Low Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) has hinged on the effectiveness of its public-private partnership (P3).

In 2012, NH&RA began work on one of the most fulfilling projects of my professional career – the Preservation Through Energy Efficiency (PTEE) Initiative. When we first got the initiative rolling, oil prices had inched back up to near all-time highs, in excess of $120 per barrel and rising utility costs threatened the performance of many multifamily investments.

It has been a momentous few months for the affordable housing community. After a bumpy presidential transition, there has been a flurry of positive activity from the Biden administration and 117th Congress. The enactment of American Rescue Plan of 2021 provides much-needed financial support for affordable housing renters at a critical moment. Our champions in Congress have reintroduced the Affordable Housing Credit Improvement Act and Historic Tax Credit Growth and Opportunity Act with expanded scopes that would dramatically enhance and expand the Low Income Housing Tax Credit and the Historic Rehabilitation Tax Credit if enacted.

America has a long and complicated legacy of discrimination and racism, dating back more than 400 years to when the colonists of Jamestown brought slavery to our shores, through the Jim Crow era to today.

Later this month marks the one-year anniversary of when our world was turned upside down by the COVID-19 pandemic. Friday, March 13, 2020 marked the last day the team at NH&RA was all together in person at the office and the beginning of a scramble to adjust to the new reality of the pandemic world.

2020 was a year of superlatives. The worst, the longest, the most dysfunctional, the most frustrating, the most divisive, etc.…the entire world is more than ready to put the year in the rear-view mirror. Since dashing out my last column, we even got a little bit of good news, a hint that 2021 may be going in the right direction. Two Coronavirus vaccines were approved and distribution has begun. A desperately needed emergency relief package and year-end spending and tax package was enacted after months of congressional stalemate.