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    Volume 27, Number 1

     

    Affordable Housing

    From the Reading Room

    Tim Iglesias

    The Fight for Fair Housing: Causes, Consequences and Future Implications of the 1968 Federal Fair Housing Act

    Affordable Housing

    From the Editor-in-Chief: Tim Iglesias

    Tim Iglesias

    Affordable housing, fair housing, and community development are currently in the throes of deep uncertainty. This issue explores the problems and offers thoughtful, grounded suggestions for moving forward.

    Government Benefits

    Digest of Recent Literature

    Contributors: Shanellah Verna, Ballard Spahr LLP; Alec Rubenstein, Robinson & Cole LLP; Katherine C. Bailey, Robinson & Cole LLP; and Adam Norlander, Klein Hornig LLP

    Data Brief: How Do Small Area Fair Market Rents Affect the Location and Number of Units Affordable to Voucher Holders?

    Organization Profile

    Fair Housing Act at 50

    Affordable Housing

    An Evolving Fair Housing Movement: Forging New Partnerships and Agendas Across Policy Areas

    Megan Haberle

    The fiftieth anniversary of the federal Fair Housing Act (FHA) this year presents an opportunity for celebration and reflection during a tumultuous political time. The civil rights community has occasion to take stock of our progress as a nation over the past fifty years; our continuingneed for action to achieve the FHA’s aims; and how evolving demographics, political and community dynamics, and jurisprudence may demand new strategies and narratives. Since the anniversary occurs during a conservative administration, it also marks a time of dual focus for national housing policy advocates.

    Government Benefits

    Threading the Needle of Fair Housing Law in a Gentrifying City with a Legacy of Discrimination

    Tim Iglesias

    This essay tells the story of an extended and complex conflict between San Francisco and HUD and the creative solution that emerged from their negotiations. The conflict concerned the application of a community preference to a proposed senior housing development that would be located in a traditional African American neighborhood in San Francisco and its potential violation of federal fair housing law. After a brief background discussion of some of the policy and legal issues raised by community preferences, the essay tells the story of the conflict and its resolution. The essay concludes with reflections on the potential value of the solution to other similarly situated cities in the context of ongoing gentrification and displacement.

    State Government

    When Opportunity Knocks: Working with State Housing Agencies to Promote Desegregation Within the LIHTC Program

    Kara Brodfuehrer and Renee Williams

    In June 2015, housing advocates across the country breathed a sigh of relief when the U.S. Supreme Court issued its decision in Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs v. Inclusive Communities Project. 1 Justice Kennedy, writing for the majority in a 5–4 decision, affirmed that disparate impact claims are cognizable under the Fair Housing Act (FHA).2 Many attorneys will, rightly, remember this case as a landmark civil rights decision. However, the facts underlying Inclusive Communities also highlight an important issue regarding the future of affordable housing in the United States: the concentration of Low-Income Housing Tax Credit(LIHTC) units primarily within low-income communities of color and how to thoughtfully address this concentration.

    Affordable Housing

    Dismantling the Narratives that Constrain Public Support for Fair Housing: The Urgent Need to Reframe the Public Conversation to Build Public Will

    Tiffany Manuel, PhD

    In January 2018, just shy of the 50th anniversary of the landmark Fair Housing Act, the Trump administration announced that it would delay implementation of the Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing (AFFH) rule enacted under President Barack Obama. Under the AFFH rule, thefederal government was poised to play a stronger role in furthering fair housing by requiring local communities to redouble their efforts to reduce segregation to qualify for federal funds.

    Opportunities and Challenges in the New Administration

    Taxation

    Tax Reform and Its Consequences for Affordable Rental Housing

    Michael Novogradac, C.P.A., Scot Keller, C.P.A., Peter Lawrence, and Mark Shelburne

    The 2017 tax reform legislation (Pub. L. No. 115-97), initially titled the “Tax Cuts and Jobs Act” (Act), was responsible for the most sweeping changes to the Internal Revenue Code (Code) in a generation. Unlike the experience in 1986, which included the creation of the low-income housing tax credit (LIHTC), nothing in the Act directly addressed affordable rental housing. Nevertheless, the new law has very important consequences for the production and preservation of affordable rental housing.

    Taxation

    Housing Finance Agencies: Opportunities and Challenges in 2018

    Carlie J. Boos

    State Housing Finance Agencies (HFAs) are a necessary and influential component of the national housing finance system. They can propel home sales, spur new multifamily construction starts, and nimbly respond to housing market disruptions. Despite their broad portfolio, they remain largely unknown to both the general public and housing professionals.This article will provide a brief overview of the different activities HFAs currently engage in and also share with readers some of the different topics HFAs will tackle in 2018, including those raised in the new administration.

    Government Benefits

    Achieving Housing Choice and Mobility in the Voucher Program: Recommendations for the Administration

    Deborah Thrope

    Housing Choice Vouchers1 help deconcentrate poverty and improve the lives of low-income families. There is evidence, however, that the program has failed to meet its housing choice and mobility goals. Tenants with a voucher disproportionately live in low-rent, racially segregatedneighborhoods.2 In fact, almost a quarter million children in the voucher program live in neighborhoods of extreme poverty.3 Many voucher families are unable to obtain rental housing outside of areas of poverty and, in some cases, fail to lease up at all. The way HUD administers the voucher program has contributed to the mobility and utilization barriers faced by low-income families.

    Article

    State Government

    The Challenge of Housing Affordability in Oregon: Facts, Tools, and Outcomes

    Paul A. Diller and Edward J. Sullivan

    Housing, particularly affordable housing, has been the center of much discussion in the second decade of the 21st century in the United States. This article focuses on that discussion in one American state—Oregon— containing slightly more than one percent of the country’s population, but possessing a land-use planning system that aspires to promote housing affordability, as well as address other social, economic, and political concerns. Indeed, Oregon’s land-use system is nationally known for its centralization and focus on containing sprawl.