Omnibus Spending Bill Expands Low Income Housing Tax Credit

"The $1.3 trillion Omnibus spending bill that was approved by Congress and begrudgingly signed by the President last week contained the first expansion of the Low Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) program in more than 10 years," reports Erika Morphy.

The news about the expanded LIHTC program wasn't part of the initial round of news coverage when President Trump signed the omnibus spending bill into law on Friday last week. That news focused more on the expansion of funding for TIGER and Community Development Block Grants. "The spending bill increased the number of LIHTCs that are available to the US states for the next four years by 12.5%," according to Morphy.

The LIHTC survived the GOP tax reform bill signed at the end of 2017, and now it has survived the federal budget process as well. The expanded funding for LIHTC isn't a guarantee that more affordable housing will be built—since President Trump signed the GOP tax reform bill into law, there's been more than one article raising the alarm about other ways the tax reform bill could harm affordable housing production. But, according to a source cited by Morphy in the article, "the expansion of the LIHTC…will help offset the effects of the Tax Reform bill that passed last year..."