Despite the housing affordability crisis many renters with low incomes face, most government resources for preserving and building affordable rental housing have dried up. This stagnation in federal housing assistance programs means that the low-income housing tax credit (LIHTC) program, which provides a federal income tax credit to private investors in eligible projects, is now the primary option for preserving and expanding the supply of affordable rental housing.

 

This report was updated in September 2018. An earlier version of the report mistakenly stated in several places that HUD’s LIHTC database included each tax credit transaction but that they were not aggregated at the level of the property or address. They are aggregated by property. We have corrected these statements throughout the document. This did not affect any part of our data analysis or findings.