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Bill Powers's avatar

Thanks Joe. I’ve always knew of the problem, but understand it better through this post!

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Al Bellenchia's avatar

I write and speak about this every day (as well as build housing.) It’s both simpler and more complex than what you describe. And it varies community by community, as well as by state.

More and more of our average/median wage workers are being driven out through a combination of factors that add up to unaffordabilty.

We created the middle class through abundant, available, and affordable housing. We are eviscerating the middle class through the opposite factors.

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JC Steiniger's avatar

Certainly a “deeper dive” is needed to fully understand the issue completely. The complexity and scale necessary to broker and utilize the available tax credits, typically to a bank, has tripped up many developments. Local banks, whose branch footprint would most likely allow them to benefit the most from these local investments, don’t have large enough balance sheets to utilize the tax credits. It sounds like you’ve “been there”?

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Al Bellenchia's avatar

Yes. I run a Habitat for Humanity operation in Columbia and Greene Counties. It’s all that and more.

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