Affordable public housing has been an issue at the forefront of public policy in the United States since the Great Depression era. The social, political, and economic benefit of adequate housing for citizens at all income levels has long been recognized. Nevertheless, despite almost seventy years worth of effort to remedy the dearth of affordable housing, there has been a failure to achieve Congress’s stated goal of housing policy: “a decent home and a suitable living environment for every American family.

The low-income housing tax credit (LIHTC), which provides a tax incentive to private developers for the construction and rehabilitation of affordable housing, is currently the largest federal program to fund the production of rental housing for low-income families in the United States. There are questions, however, regarding the ability of the tax credit to meet the needs of the lowest-income households and its role in promoting housing segregation and discrimination. If this is indeed the case, and if the LIHTC continues to be the primary program for the production of affordable housing, these are important deficiencies that must be addressed.