Recent news reports have highlighted the low number of federally-funded affordable housing projects that are built in high-opportunity areas, but an examination has found that strategic allocation changes are having a beneficial effect in New Jersey.
While recent news reports have highlighted the low number of affordable housing projects being built in high-opportunity areas using federal tax credits, a recent examination by New Jersey Future has found that strategic changes in the way federal funds are allocated for affordable housing in the state have meant that many more affordable housing projects have been directed away from high-poverty neighborhoods and toward areas that offer greater economic opportunity.
To evaluate whether those changes had their intended effect, New Jersey Future compared affordable housing projects that received federal Low-Income Housing Tax Credits (LIHTC) between 2005 and 2012 with projects that received credits between 2013 and 2015, after the New Jersey Housing and Mortgage Finance Agency (NJHMFA), which administers the tax credits, made significant changes to the criteria it uses to award them.
Read the full story: These Changes to Tax Credit Criteria Are Breaking Up Concentrated Poverty
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