Economy

Diagnosing and Treating 'Property-Value Panic' Syndrome

A Chicago church’s plans for affordable housing were crushed by middle-class residents scared about their home values. Would they really fall?
REUTERS/Jim Young

When low-income housing tax credits were introduced by the federal government in 1986, they incentivized private developers to build more affordable home options for families stuck with stagnant incomes. Today, the tax credits are the primary vehicle used by the feds for producing affordable housing. But they haven’t done much about the segregation of poverty and opportunity.

This week, public radio outlet WBEZ mapped the distribution of low income housing tax credits (LIHTCs) around the Chicago metro region and found that the grand bulk of them were used to build units in high-poverty areas. As late as 2009, no suburban Chicago neighborhoods with economic upward mobility had LIHTC housing developments, which are typically apartment buildings. It’s gotten a little better since then, but, as WBEZ reporter Natalie Moore writes, “there is still resistance in many communities.”