Dear Friends,
Following the Keith Lamont Scott shooting, the City of Charlotte increased its production goals for affordable housing, pledging to provide 5,000 units in three years. To back up that pledge, the City recently approved an extraordinary $20 million in Housing Trust Funds to support new production of 649 units in five developments across Charlotte.
Unfortunately, no matter how much Charlotte’s city government steps up, our ability to advance affordable housing goals could be quickly and dramatically hindered by action at the federal level.
The tax reform bills introduced by the U.S. House of Representatives will reduce or eliminate incentives for private sector investment in affordable housing developments, primarily by eliminating related multifamily housing bonds and devaluing Low Income Housing Tax Credits (LIHTC). Established in 1986, the LIHTC program is the single most successful affordable housing finance program in the nation.
In Charlotte, DreamKey Partners is one of several affordable housing providers with developments that are directly threatened by the unintended effects of tax reform. Over the last five (5) years, DreamKey Partners has completed five (5) LIHTC developments in Charlotte, for a total of 349 units and has another 104 units under construction. Combined, these developments have used over $9 million in Housing Trust Funds from the City of Charlotte, $26 million in private sector equity incentivized with tax credits, and $10 million in tax-exempt bond volume.
Without the tax credits and tax-exempt bond financing, more than $64 million in affordable housing development would not have been possible and the jobs associated with construction would not have materialized.
You may be familiar with the proposed Freedom Drive Apartments. It’s a first for Charlotte, 185 units of housing serving a wide range of incomes that has attracted $2 million in private investment from Covenant Presbyterian Church. With federal, state, city and community support, DreamKey Partners plans to build this development in a part of Charlotte that is quickly becoming unaffordable for long-time residents of the surrounding neighborhoods. Financing for the $30 million development includes $6.8 million in equity raised through the sale of tax credits that are paired with tax-exempt bonds. If the tax reform bill passes as it currently reads in the House Bill, the hole created would be too large for our local partners to fill, and construction won’t happen.
In addition to Freedom Drive Apartments, there are another 464 affordable rental homes in the pipeline that won’t happen without tax-exempt bond financing.
Charlotte’s fixed-income seniors and modest-income families need your help!
Please call your U.S. Representative and Senators TODAY and tell them to:
- Restore tax-exempt housing bond financing, and
- Enhance the value of Low Income Housing Tax Credits in the tax reform plan.
Search here for your Representative https://www.house.gov/representatives/find/, or call the U.S. House Switchboard at (202) 224-3121.
- For Representative Alma S. Adams, call (202) 225-1510
- For Representative G.K. Butterfield, call (202) 225-3101
- For Representative Virginia Foxx, call (336) 778-0211
- For Dr. Richard Hudson, call (202) 225-3715
- For Representative Walter B. Jones, Jr., call (202) 225-3415
- For Representative Patrick T. McHenry, call (202) 225-2576
- For Representative Mark Meadows, call (202) 225-6401
- For Representative Robert Pittenger, call (202) 225-1976
- For Representative David Price, call (202) 225-1784
- For Representative David Rouzer, call (202) 225-2731
- For Representative Mark Walker, call (202) 225-3065
- For Representative Ted Budd, call (202) 225-4531
- For Senator Richard Burr, call (202) 224-3154
- For Senator Thom Tillis, call (202) 224-6342
Call ASAP as the debate has already begun! Constituent calls make a difference and helps modest income families and seniors.
Thank you,
Julie A. Porter
President