Multi-Housing News: Affordable Housing: A Practitioner’s Action Plan for 2018

While strides have been made in the affordable housing sector over the last few years, the lack of supply and need for additional capital remain prevalent issues for the industry. While Enterprise Community Partners, one of the largest and most active nonprofits in the affordable housing sector, celebrated the retention of the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (Housing Credit) in the new tax code, the firm continues to address the acute need for affordable homes and promote the tools necessary to make such projects a reality. In a recent blog post, Enterprise discussed a new class of community investment vehicles created by a provision in the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act—the Opportunity Zone Program. This provision is designed to incentivize long-term capital to invest in distressed communities by providing tax benefits on investments in opportunity funds. This is the first new community development tax incentive program since the Clinton Administration, the blog post noted. However, the program still has to go through a formal rule-making process and will take a while before it’s set up.