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Report: Affordable Housing Programs Creating Residential Segregation

Federal affordable housing efforts may be responsible for perpetuating racial segregation, the ""Fair Housing Justice Center"":http://www.fairhousingjustice.org/ (FHJC) says in a new report.

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The report, titled ""Choice Constrained, Segregation Maintained: Using Federal Tax Credits to Provide Affordable Housing,"" centers on an analysis of ten years of data on affordable housing developed under the federal Low Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) program. The center obtained data from three tax credit allocation agencies in New York.

According to the study's findings, 77 percent of LIHTC affordable housing units were located in minority neighborhoods, while 71 percent were located in areas of high or extreme poverty. Housing units were concentrated in those neighborhoods regardless of whether they involved the rehabilitation or new construction of multifamily housing.

In addition, more than half of the LIHTC units developed in the study area received tax credits from New York's Department of Housing Preservation and Development. Out of those, only 2 percent were located in low-poverty neighborhoods, and 9 percent were located in white or predominantly white areas of the city.

The report ""underscores why it is important for government agencies to take their duty to affirmatively further fair housing seriously,"" said executive director Kumiki Gibson.

""Had they done so over the decade studied in our report, the LIHTC program could have expanded housing choices for lower-income families and contributed to a reduction in residential segregation,"" Gibson continued. ""Our hope is that, going forward, these agencies will take steps to ensure that tax credits are used to create more mixed-income housing opportunities in low-poverty areas.""

In response to the report, the ""National Fair Housing Alliance"":http://www.nationalfairhousing.org/ (NFHA) issued a release calling for the Treasury and New York housing finance agencies to administer the program in a way that doesn't counteract the Fair Housing Act.

""The LIHTC program is a critical tool for providing much needed affordable housing to communities across the country, but the site location of tax credit developments may restrict housing choice and perpetuate entrenched patterns of segregation in our neighborhoods,"" said NFHA president and CEO Shanna Smith. ""The recommendations proposed in the report will help ensure that the LIHTC program affirmatively furthers fair housing, a key requirement of all executive agencies.""

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