NEW YORK, Oct. 7 (Xinhua) -- While Americans continue to struggle under unrelentingly high rents, as many as 223,000 affordable housing units across the United States could be yanked out in the next five years alone, reported The Associated Press on Monday.

"It leaves low-income tenants caught facing protracted eviction battles, scrambling to pay a two-fold rent increase or more, or shunted back into a housing market where costs can easily eat half a paycheck," the report noted.

Those affordable housing units were built with the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC), a federal program established in 1986 that provides tax credits to developers in exchange for keeping rents low. It has pumped out 3.6 million units since then and boasts over half of all federally supported low-income housing nationwide.

The buildings typically only need to be kept affordable for a minimum of 30 years. For the wave of LIHTC construction in the 1990s, those deadlines are arriving now, threatening to hemorrhage affordable housing supply when Americans need it most, according to the report.

Local governments and nonprofits can purchase expiring apartments, new tax credits can be applied that extend the affordability, or, tenants can organize to try to force action from landlords and city officials, it said.

In California, landlords must notify state and local governments and tenants before their building expires. Housing organizations, nonprofits, and state or local governments then have first shot at buying the property to keep it affordable.

However, unlike California, some states haven't extended LIHTC agreements beyond 30 years, let alone taken other measures to keep expiring housing affordable, added the report. Enditem

Related

Go to Forum >>0 Comment(s)