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The Washington State Housing Finance Commission (WSHFC) recently released a report on transfer disputes, titled “Nonprofit Transfer Disputes in the Low Income Housing Tax Credit Program: An Emerging Threat to Affordable Housing.” The report discusses the recent increase in the number of challenges that private firms have made on nonprofit partners’ project transfer rights in the affordable housing community, which the WSHFC asserts is detrimental to the public interest.

In response to the devastation caused by the 2018 California wildfire season, the IRS recently issued a notice to the state committee that administers federal and state low-income housing tax credits to extend the date of its compliance review of credits in the three affected counties to either Nov. 25 or one year after the date of a building’s restoration and placement back into service. The relief is extended to California individuals affected by destructive wildfires last year in Butte, Los Angeles, and Ventura counties.

The United States Census Bureau recently issued a set of three reports—Income and Poverty in the United States: 2018, Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2018, and The Supplemental Poverty Measure: 2018. The reports found that median household income held steady at $63,179 between 2017 and 2018. Social Security, refundable tax credits, housing subsidies, and other federal aid kept nearly 47.8 million people out of poverty. The number of people in poverty decreased by 1.4 million, representing a 0.5 percentage point decrease to a rate of 11.8 percent.

Johns Hopkins University researchers recently issued a policy research brief exploring the effects of affordable housing on the cognitive development, physical health, and emotional well-being of children living in poverty. Though how much a family spent on housing had no effect on a child’s physical or social health, when it came to cognitive ability, it made a dramatic difference.

To stimulate greater multifamily residential and commercial development in Opportunity Zones, HUD Secretary Ben Carson recently announced the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) will insure mortgages on mixed-use development under the agency’s Section 220 program in thousands of lower income communities across the country.

Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s administration is changing the rules for how the city allocates federal low-income housing tax credits (LIHTCs). The city recently released a new Qualification Allocation Plan (QAP), which details the application process that developers must follow to obtain LIHTCs.

Senators Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Todd Young (R-IN) and Representatives Joe Neguse (D-CO), Don Beyer (D-VA), and Jackie Walorski (R-IN) recently introduced the Save Affordable Housing Act of 2019. The Save Affordable Housing Act was introduced both the Senate and the House. This bill will make a correction to the Qualified Contract provision in Section 42 of the Internal Revenue Code to stem the loss of thousands of LIHTC sites.

Harvard University’s Joint Center for Housing Studies (JCHS) recently released its annual report, “The State of the Nation’s Housing 2019.” According to the report, 2017 measures showed small signs of improvement for cost-burdened renters. In 2017, 20.5 million renter households were cost burdened (compared to 20.8 in 2016), including nearly 10.7 million renter households who were severely cost burdened (compared to 11 million in 2016).

Nevada Governor Steve Sisolak recently signed legislation that creates a transferable state housing tax credit with an annual cap of $10 million. If officials see strong demand for the credit, they can award up to $13 million in credits in a year, but the following year’s amount would be reduced by $3 million. The program expires Jan. 1, 2030.

A bipartisan group of lawmakers have introduced legislation in both houses of Congress to expand the LIHTC program. The Affordable Housing Credit Improvement Act of 2019 was introduced by U.S. Senators Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.), Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), and Todd Young (R-Ind.), and U.S. Representatives Suzan DelBene (D-Wash.), Kenny Marchant (R-Texas), Don Beyer (D-Va.), and Jackie Walorski (R-In.).