Low Income Housing Tax Credit Reform

To whom it may concern,

The dominant share of federal housing money currently goes into the Section 8 voucher program. While this assistance helps many families and individuals afford housing, it does little to eliminate the long-term issues surrounding the affordable housing crisis. It is a temporary measure that benefits the landowner over the overall health of the economy and the nation. Instead, the federal government should seek to transition out of this dependence on Section 8 vouchers to the creation of new, permanent affordable housing. This affordable housing should be concentrated in areas of need, particularly of those places with high levels of demand, such as Boston, New York City, Los Angeles and San Fransisco. The Low Income Housing Tax Credit should be expanded to assist in the development of affordable, mixed-income housing projects in cities across the country. The problem with the existing voucher program is that like the urban renewal program of the 1960s, it creates concentrated neighborhoods and/or buildings of the poor. Instead, the program should be rewritten with additional standards and conditions to promote the types of development that are necessary for our future prosperity. Again, this means the funding of mixed-use, mixed-income, dense, affordable, and environmentally sustainable infill development. While the Hope VI program seeks to reintegrate housing projects into the fabric of surrounding mixed-income neighborhoods, it usually has a net loss of housing units. The focus on constructing new affordable housing in mixed-income developments will assist developers by leveraging public funding, focus development into areas that will limit environmental impacts, reduce costs associated with the provision of services and infrastructure, and promote the social interaction that has been waning in this country sine the migration into the suburbs. In New York City, Shaun Donovan worked to preserve, rehabilitate, and build new affordable housing projects. Under your administration, how will the Department of Housing and Urban Development reform its affordable housing programs, in particular the Low Income Housing Tax Credit? Will there be new programs introduced to encourage public-private partnerships, mixed-income projects, and in-fill development?

GUNNAR HAND, AICP