Tax Credit Advisor Article Archives

During 1858’s Great Stink, London’s Thames River was so foul that members of Parliament fled, and Parliament shut down.

It’s 2022 and the COVID-19 pandemic looks likely to roll into a third year, bringing with it more uncertainty, but leaders in the affordable housing space say the new year still looks promising since the industry has already pivoted sharply due to the pandemic and will continue to do so.

In recent years, the concept of “co-living”—wherein some or all parts of a unit and its common areas are shared by multiple renters—has garnered attention from developers.

The National Council of Housing Market Analysts (NCHMA) released two new white papers at its annual meeting last month, covering affordable assisted living and the challenges facing rural affordable projects.

Affordable housing is well-known for needing multiple funders to make developments viable. But according to Department of Housing and Urban Development Secretary Marcia Fudge, effective collaboration extends beyond funding to operations as well.

Like many industries, affordable housing market analysts have felt the effects of the tight labor market, forcing both firms and their clients to look to flexible work schedules, increased pay and non-monetary support to retain talent, industry representatives said at a panel discussion during the National Council of Housing Market Analysts (NCHMA) annual meeting.

As I write this column in mid-December, full of holiday spirit and optimism, I remain hopeful that Build Back Better (BBB) will at some point be enacted into law and we will be the beneficiaries of the broadest expansion of the Low Income Housing Tax Credit since the program’s enactment, despite the recent pronouncements of one senator.

One of the challenges of housing finance in rural areas is that properties are so spread out, it sometimes is hard to achieve the kind of numbers you need to make a project work.

This article is adapted from a session presented at the 2021 Consortium of Housing and Asset Management (CHAM) Conference.

At MIT, one can traverse half a mile of jumbled urban campus entirely indoors.