The Texas Senate passed out the TDHCA Sunset bill this afternoon. The bill voted out adopted the recommendations of the Sunset Commission, removing endorsement letters from legislators from the statutory scoring of the Low Income Housing Tax Credit award process. These letters have previously been discussed at Texas Housers. A floor amendment re-instituting the letters […]
Read more
Tag Archives: LIHTC
House Amends TDHCA Sunset Bill
April 25, 2013 
1 Comment
The Texas House yesterday debated HB3361, the bill to continue the functions of the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs after its review by the Sunset Commission. The main topic of conversation was scoring legislative support support letters for Low Income Housing Tax Credit developments. For those just joining this conversation, we’ve discussed those letters […]
Read more Rep. Anchia Files Bill Removing Legislative Letters from Housing Tax Credit Scoring
February 8, 2013 0 Comments
In a previous blog post here at Texas Housers, we presented an analysis showing that the letters written by Texas State Representatives and Senators in 2011 regarding the development of Low Income Housing Tax Credit Housing in the state had the effect of steering this housing to lower income, higher poverty areas of the state. […]
Read more Texas LIHTC housing program rocked by second earthquake in two months
April 22, 2012 Comments Off
Reporter Karisa King’s full Texas housing story is out in the San Antonio Express News. It is a devastating expose of the Texas Low Income Housing Tax Credit program. $9.7 billion in federal funds have been spent by the State of Texas that has on balance enhanced racial and ethnic segregation through the State’s administration […]
Read moreLow-Income Housing Program Compels Building in Poor Texas Areas – NYTimes.com
April 21, 2012 Comments Off
Karisa King of the San Antonio Epress News has an incredibly researched and very disturbing story in Sunday’s New York Times and Texas Tribune. The interactive maps are stunning at: http://www.texastribune.org/library/data/tax-credit-housing-locations/ Plans to build a low-income apartment complex for seniors in one of San Antonio’s most fashionable neighborhoods had been posted for barely a week in […]
Read more Dallas fumbles in the absence of a housing policy
January 18, 2012 2 Comments
Housing segregation is a problem most Texas communities struggle with. Crippled by a lack of political courage and leadership no city seems to struggle more than Dallas, often with serious consequences. The Dallas Morning News (DMN) ran a front page story Sunday about a dispute between the backers of two proposed Low Income Housing Tax […]
Read more Effect of Elected Official Letters on the 2011 LIHTC Round
July 1, 2011 3 Comments
Abstract: Letters written by Texas State Representatives and Senators regarding the development of low income housing in the state had the effect of moving development to lower income, higher poverty areas of the state.
Read more Opportunity to tame public corruption lost in veto of TDHCA Sunset bill
June 28, 2011 2 Comments
When Texas Governor Rick Perry vetoed the TDHCA Sunset Bill a week or so ago one thing that was lost was two years of work by the Texas Sunset Commission to reform a system of allocating Low Income Housing Tax Credits (LIHTC) that has sent a dozen or so Texans to the federal penitentiary. It […]
Read more The racism of New Berlin is growing in Galveston
June 25, 2011 9 Comments
We noted yesterday the United States Department of Justice brought suit alleging the City of New Berlin, Wisconsin had violated the Fair Housing Act by denying a developer permission to build a mixed senior, family development financed with Low Income Housing Tax Credits (LIHTC). I just read the Justice Department’s compliant in the case. The same […]
Read more Feds Sue Wisconsin town for NIMBY Opposition to LIHTC Development
June 24, 2011 1 Comment
Its been a busy week at the Justice Department on the fair housing front. After yesterday’s legal action petitioning to join Disability Rights Texas’s lawsuit against the state for segregating developmentally disabled Texans in nursing homes, the today the DOJ filed suit against a Wisconsin town for opposing a Low Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) […]
Read more State Rep Riddle says she wants no low-income housing in her district
June 14, 2011 1 Comment
To appreciate the fair housing problem in Texas just watch this video. Back in February, at a hearing on the budget for the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs (TDHCA), Texas State Representative Debbie Riddle, House District 150, which comprises much of northwest Harris County (51% Anglo. per capita income $25,272, 28% renters), asked Mike […]
Read moreIt’s NIMBY Time…Again
April 6, 2011 2 Comments
“We realize that not all residents of an affordable housing development will, by default, be criminals. However, we are also not ignorant to the fact, which is supported by real statistics, that many criminals (especially violent criminals, drug-related criminals, and sex-offenders) tend to come from a lower socio-economic class. […] We feel that in this […]
Read moreStudy of State’s Use of LIHTC Boost
February 21, 2011 Comments Off
This month the “Novogradac Journal of Tax Credits” included an article examining how different states utilize their ability to offer some Low Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) developments a 30% “boost” in funding. (article link here). As regular readers know, the LIHTC program is a federal program that supports the production of affordable multifamily housing. […]
Read moreRecap of Sunset Commission Recommendations for TDHCA
December 23, 2010 2 Comments
Last week the Texas sunset commission adopted its final recommendations regarding the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs (TDHCA). Burying its lead, the final recommendation adopted was to continue the department for another 12 years, recognizing the improvements since the last full sunset review in 2000. A detailed recap of the full recommendations is […]
Read moreHousing Credit Update
December 17, 2010 Comments Off
A couple of changes in the prospects for the Low Income Housing Tax Credit program in the last few days. The Tax Credit Exchange (i.e. 1602 Grants in Lieu of Tax Credits) program was not extended in the final “tax extender” compromise bill that passed the Congress yesterday. This program was used as leverage by […]
Read moreStudy: Leading Subsidized Housing Program in Texas Limits Economic Opportunity of the Poor
December 13, 2010 1 Comment
New report finds that Low Income Housing Tax Credit housing is more likely than other rental housing to be built in low-income, predominantly minority neighborhoods. Austin, TX – The Low Income Housing Tax Credit program, the #1 producer of affordable rental housing in Texas, concentrates its new developments in low-opportunity neighborhoods, according to a […]
Read moreRecap of TDHCA’s QAP Adoption
November 12, 2010 1 Comment
Last Thursday the board of the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs (TDHCA) adopted the rules governing the allocation of the Low Income Housing Tax Credit Program (LIHTC) in 2011. These rules are known as the Qualified Allocation Plan, or QAP. Regular readers may recall we recently posted our comments regarding the Draft QAP […]
Read moreTxLIHIS Comments on Proposed 2011 QAP
October 28, 2010 2 Comments
October 23, 2010 Ms. Robbye Meyer Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs P.O. Box 13941 Austin, TX 78711-3941 RE: Comments on the proposed 2011 Texas Qualified Allocation Plan Dear Ms. Meyer: We offer these recommendations regarding the Draft 2011 State of Texas Qualified Allocation Plan (QAP) for allocation of Low Income Housing Tax Credits […]
Read moreNIMBYism in Real Time
October 21, 2010 Comments Off
“Studies show it [NIMBYism] has contributed to projects being clustered in less affluent areas with high concentrations of minorities, such as East Austin, while relatively wealthy and well-organized neighborhoods see few if any such projects.” –Austin American Statesman, 10/16/10 Just a few days after the Austin American Statesman discussion of the general impact of NIMBYism […]
Read more“Neighborhood” letters and Tax Credit Properties
October 18, 2010 Comments Off
Eric Dexheimer at that Statesman has an extensive article examining neighborhood groups and the Low Income Housing Tax Credit Program. The article examines groups created by investors for the purpose of writing support letters for developments, as well as how the state’s scoring of neighborhood letter’s impacts the program by giving power to NIMBY interests. […]
Read moreTxLIHIS Files Comments on Sunset Staff Report on TDHCA
October 5, 2010 1 Comment
We recently signed on to two sets of comments on the Sunset Staff report on TDHCA. The first set was submitted with Texas Appleseed, and focused on Disaster Recovery programs in the state. The second set was submitted in conjunction with a large set of TDHCA stakeholders and focused on many of the recommendations previously […]
Read moreLawsuit alleging race discrimination in Texas housing tax credit program clears (another) hurdle
September 30, 2010 Comments Off
The Federal District Court for the Northern District of Texas has ruled that the Inclusive Communities Project has legal standing to continue its lawsuit alleging the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs (TDHCA) is guilty of racial discrimination in the operation of the Low Income Housing Tax Credit Program. Back in 2008, we discussed […]
Read moreTexas Lags in serving the housing needs of SSI recipients
May 7, 2010 2 Comments
Stephen F. Gold, an attorney who specializes in civil rights and represents only persons with disabilities, publishes an email Information Bulletin called “Steve Gold’s Treasured Bits of Information.” Last month he issued a bulletin titled Targeting Low-Income Housing Tax Credits to People on SSI? Supplemental Security Income (SSI) is a program designed to help aged, […]
Read moreIf Not In Your Backyard, Then Where?
April 30, 2010 2 Comments
The Low Income Housing Tax Credit Program (LIHTC) is a federal program that supports the production of affordable multifamily housing. Most of these tax credits are awarded through a competitive allocation process administered by the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs (TDHCA). Developers apply for credits for a specific proposed development, TDHCA scores the […]
Read moreTexas State Representative sentenced to prison in housing tax credit bribery case
April 27, 2010 1 Comment
State Representative Terri Hodge (D-Dallas) was sentenced to a year in prison today by a Dallas Federal District judge on bribery changes stemming from the Dallas Low Income Housing Tax Credit corruption trial. According to the Dallas Morning News, Hodge failed to report $74,000 in income from 2001 to 2005. Of that amount, $32,541 was from […]
Read moreFailing Waco property facing closure
April 9, 2010 Comments Off
Back in 2008 we listed the eleven subsidized housing properties with the lowest physical inspection scores from HUD. One of those properties, Parkside Village of Waco, recently received another failing inspection stores and will likely be shut down by HUD. (While two other Waco properties appeared on a more recent list of two subsidized housing […]
Read moreDallas Tax Credit Corruption Case Continues
February 20, 2010 1 Comment
The Dallas Morning News reports State Rep. Terri Hodge plead guilty to not paying taxes on payments which were allegedly bribes for support of Low-Income Housing Tax credit deals in her district. As part of her deal plea deal, finalized late Tuesday, Hodge did not admit the bribery conspiracy, which alleges that she wrote letters […]
Read moreTDHCA: Trying to make the best of a bad LIHTC thing
November 11, 2009 1 Comment
One of the Recovery Act programs we’re watching is the Housing Tax Credit Exchange program, a program supporting the production of affordable multifamily housing. This program builds on the infrastructure and processes of the traditional Low Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) program. In the LIHTC program, investors receive tax credits for funding the construction of […]
Read moreRecovery Act Reporting Milestone
November 6, 2009 Comments Off
Last Friday was a major milestone in the extensive reporting requirements of the Recovery Act. Recovery.gov released the first round of reports by local recipients regarding the status of some 142,825 initiatives receiving recovery funds. This round of reports covered Feb. 17, 2009, through Sept. 30, 2009—the reports will be updated quarterly going forward. […]
Read moreHousing Tax Credit Assistance Program: A second bite at the apple?
October 12, 2009 Comments Off
One of the TDHCA programs we are tracking with our new American Recovery and Reinvestment Act accountability initiative is the Tax Credit Assistance Program (TCAP). The website for the program explains “The current economic crisis has decreased demand for [housing] tax credits [HTCs] by investors” and “TCAP provides funding through the HOME Program to compensate […]
Read moreBooks we are reading
No data found
