The Role of Nonprofits in Meeting the Housing Challenge in the United States

Abstract

Housing owned by nonprofit housing organizations comprises one of the two components of the U.S.’s social housing sector, the other being public housing. After providing relevant background about affordable rental housing programs in the United States (including federal, state, and local strategies); the overall size of the U.S. social housing sector; and the level of direct and indirect subsidies for housing, the article focuses on the key challenges facing the nonprofit housing sector. Details also are provided about the difficulties involved in navigating the Low Income Housing Tax Credit program for both nonprofit and for-profit developers. The final section offers suggestions for how nonprofits could be better supported through a series of ‘nonprofit-centric’ public policies and programs. Despite the ongoing need for more federal involvement in affordable housing, and the important role that nonprofit housing organizations are able to play, the current political situation in the United States means that an expanded federally supported affordable housing agenda is highly unlikely in the foreseeable future.