Affordable housing needs boost, says Lend Lease.

Lend Lease Real Estate Investments, Inc., one of the nation's leading real estate investment organizations, today applauded Congress and President Clinton for the passage and today's signing of H.R. 4577, which increases the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) program allocation formula. But they warned that additional measures will be needed to resolve the growing shortage of affordable housing.

Jenny Netzer, Principal and head of the company's Housing and Community Investing group, noted that the newly-enacted legislation increases the formula for the first time since 1986, and should increase the development of affordable housing units by approximately 30,000 units per year. However, she noted that more than five million U.S. households have worst-case housing needs, according to HUD statistics. She said the shortfall affects not only families depending on public assistance, but also is becoming an increasing problem for low-income worker-supported families.

"The passage of H.R. 4577 represents a great start, but many of the concerns we have expressed in the past have yet to be fully addressed," Netzer said. "We hope that President-elect Bush and the new Congress recognize the need for more affordable housing and take advantage of the willingness of the private sector to help finance it."

Netzer said that Congress should consider a further increase in an expansion of the tax credit program as well as other federal programs that help fund housing.

She noted that, six months ago, Lend Lease researchers had presented the case for aggressive action in a report called, "America's Prosperity: A Chicken in Every Pot." In that report, M. Leanne Lachman and Deborah L. Brett cited an actual decline in low-cost housing availability and overall rent inflation as key factors preventing many low- and moderate-income households from participating in the booming U.S. economy.

The authors pointed out that, while relatively few young adults entered the market for the first time in the 1990s, this will change as the Babyboom Echo joins the workforce in large numbers. Moderate- and even middle-income seniors who can no longer live alone find it difficult to locate affordable apartments with the supportive services they need. And while today's welfare caseloads are at record lows (because of more stringent eligibility criteria and an extraordinarily tight job market), the inevitable economic slowdown will put many under-educated workers back on the waiting list for subsidized apartments.

Lend Lease is one of the nation's largest apartment (multifamily) investment managers with more than 125,800 units in its portfolios. The company handles multifamily portfolio management, asset management, capital markets, development, residential property management, and senior living investments/property management.