The change could have implications for affordable housing as a whole as well dAffordable housing advocates were already scrambling after the House?s tax reform bill included a surprise elimination of the tax-exempt private activity bonds that are used to fund low-income housing units across the country.
But a last-second amendment added to the Senate bill early Saturday morning by Pat Roberts (R-Kan) has put another group?s housing in the tax bill?s crosshairs: artists.
As part of the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) program, developers and property owners are currently allowed to target and market to low-income artists for their LIHTC projects, one of the very few exclusions to a rule that says LIHTC units must be open to the general public. But Roberts?s amendment swaps out artists for veterans, and applies the change retroactively to development projects already under way. Because of the retroactive effective date, the provision could not only undermine current and future housing for low-income artists, but experts believe it could undermine the entire LIHTC program, which has helped fund almost 3 million low-income housing units since the program?s inception in 1986.
?If I?m an investor of a property, I depend on having some level of certainty,? said Peter Lawrence, Director of Public Policy for Novogradac & Company, an accounting firm that specializes in LIHTC. ?If get the sense that Congress is going to retroactively pull the rug out from under my feet...