New Perspectives on People and Places in the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit Program

Session Submission Type: Panel

Abstract

For the past forty years, the U.S. has built affordable housing primarily through the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) program. In contrast to public housing and other federally-subsidized project-based programs, LIHTC properties are built in partnership with private developers, who receive tax credits in exchange for building housing affordable to low-income families. The private-public partnership aspect of the program has implications for who lives in LIHTC and where LIHTC is located. The papers in this panel bring new perspectives and data sources to understand the broader implications of LIHTC development on local contexts, residential mobility patterns, and LIHTC tenants.

Two papers offer novel approaches to neighborhood context. Owens, Reid, and Underriner examine the dynamics of LIHTC properties’ local contexts. They extend past research by examining the changing characteristics of both neighborhoods and local schools around LIHTC properties in California over time. Whaley and Mei advance our understanding of LIHTC properties’ impacts on in-migration into their surrounding neighborhoods and provide new evidence on an understudied feature of residential composition: registered voters’ political party.

Two papers provide new evidence on LIHTC tenants, leveraging unique data sources to compensate for the scarcity of data on those who reside in LIHTC properties. Lens and colleagues use consumer data to track low-income tenants’ mobility into and out of LIHTC properties in California, with particular attention to whether the location of LIHTC in higher-opportunity areas promotes residential integration. Ellen, O’Regan, and Tauber analyze unique, individual-level rent roll data to understand the rent dynamics of LIHTC tenants, describing the dynamic cycle of tenants falling into arrears over time. 

All of the papers on this panel provide new perspectives on the LIHTC program, with implications for federal, state, and local policymakers on how to fund the program, how to set affordable rents, where properties should be located, and implications for tenants, local residents, and broader neighborhood dynamics. 

Policy Area

• Housing, Community Development, and Urban Policy

Secondary Policy Area

• Population and Migration Issues

Chair

• Carolina K Reid, University of California, Berkeley

Discussants

• Vince Wang, University of Washington

• Cody Cook, Yale University

Individual Presentations

• Shifting Neighborhoods of Opportunity: LIHTC and School and Neighborhood Change Over Time - Presenting Author: Ann Owens, University of California - Los Angeles; Non-Presenting Co-Author: Carolina K Reid, University of California, Berkeley; Non-Presenting Co-Author: Quinn Underriner, Terner Center for Housing Innovation, UC Berkeley

• The Effect of LIHTC Development on Neighborhood Political Composition - Presenting Author: Mike Mei, Colgate University; Non-Presenting Co-Author: Kenneth Whaley, University of South Florida

• Using New Data Sources to Study Neighborhood Outcomes for LIHTC Tenants - Presenting Author: Michael C Lens, University of California - Los Angeles; Non-Presenting Co-Author: Katherine L Chen, University of California - Los Angeles; Non-Presenting Co-Author: Ann Owens, University of California - Los Angeles; Non-Presenting Co-Author: Paavo Monkkonen, University of California - Los Angeles; Non-Presenting Co-Author: Dan Rinzler, California Housing Partnership

• Slipping Into and Out of Arrears: The Dynamics of Arrears Spells in LIHTC Housing - Non-Presenting Co-Author: Ingrid Gould Ellen, New York University; Non-Presenting Co-Author: Katherine O'Regan, New York University; Presenting Author: Kristen Nicole Tauber, New York University

Organizer

• Ann Owens, University of California - Los Angeles