Comments by:
David A. Smith
President
Recapitalization Advisors
Boston

Our readers, or at least respondents to our weekly Feedback Poll, are a cynical bunch. Some 60% say that, despite a newly Democratic House and, likely, Senate, affordable housing will not advance significantly. Commentator Smith says they're wrong. Smith, in addition to running Recap, which is a for-profit consultancy that works on affordable-housing financing, is founder of the Affordable Housing Institute. AHI is geared to helping governments outside the US design and implement programs that further affordable housing. Here's what Smith has to say on the topic:

"Affordable housing has risen in the public and political consciousness in a way that I have not seen in 20 years, even in the weeks since the election. The reason for that is simply the rotation of chairmanships.

"Remember those Medieval clocks where people come out alternatively to ring the chime? That's a little metaphor for Congress. Until November the chairmen of the House and Senate housing and tax related committees, the committees that deal with affordable housing, were from rural Ohio; Central Valley, CA; Missouri--all rural environments.

"Today they're from Los Angeles, Boston and Harlem. The speaker is from San Francisco and is fully motivated about housing related issues. So in the rotation of leadership we have replaced a group of largely rural members of Congress with a group of urban members of Congress.

"In this country, if you're at 80% of medium income or above you own a house, 60% to 80% of medium income you can rent a conventional apartment, 30% to 60% is the band served by the tax credit, and up to 30% is served by Section 8 and public housing. Significantly, the government plays a role in each of those four bands, and this is not appreciated by taxpayers and even elected officials.

"The maximum rent you can charge under a tax-credit project approximates market rent. However, in supply-restricted environments, like blue states and bright blue cities, restrictions on development have created shortages of supply relative to economic demand, which has pushed up housing costs in terms of multiples of income. So homes and apartments become more expensive relative to anybody's salary, and that opens a gap that cannot be closed by low-income tax credit. These communities can't use available federal tools to create affordable supply because rules put a cap on who can use them. They're crying out for this 60%-to-95% of median-income worker bee and the phrase that you start to hear is workforce housing.

"Workforce housing is a huge issues, which is surprisingly bipartisan in nature. When you have a shift from rural to urban committee chairs, what will emerge in Congress is the awareness that workforce housing is an unsolved problem. With the Democrats controlling the house for sure and presumably the senate, I believe there will be lots of debate and discussion and exploration. I don't know if anything will be enacted, but I believe it will rise significantly in political consciousness."

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Will Affordable Housing Advance in Congress?

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