ABSTRACT
Th e single largest subsidy for the production of low-income rental housing is not a federal housing program but an item in the Internal Revenue Code. Established by the Tax Reform Act of 1986, the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) provides fi nancial incentives to invest in low-income rental housing. Th e tax credit has helped fund the development of more than 2.5 million housing units through 2011. Th e program accounted for half of the nation’s multifamily construction starts in 2010, and about 30% of all multifamily rental housing constructed from 1987 to 2006 (Enterprise Communities Partners 2013; Khadduri, Climaco, & Burnett 2012) Tax-credit housing now accommodates nearly twice as many households as public housing, a program that started 50 years earlier.
