Tax Credit-Supported Affordable Housing Is Concentrated In Cities

A new survey by Lance Freeman indicates that housing developments funded by the federal Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) in the 1990s remain clustered in urban neighborhoods, and those containing disproportionate shares of black residents. According to the report, 58 percent of LIHTC units lie in central cities, while blacks represent one in four residents of the units’ surrounding neighborhoods (compared to about one in seven across all metropolitan neighborhoods). Still, the credit appears to have helped produce new federally assisted housing units in suburban areas. Nevertheless, substantial room exists for the program to expand housing choice for lower-income families beyond disadvantaged central-city neighborhoods.