Housing Shortages and the New Legislature

I was reading on the Clarion Ledger this morning about the difficulties to be faced in the upcoming legislative sessions and I some questions came to mind.

One of the tasks facing the session will be problems with housing shortages on the Gulf Coast. With all of the wide open opportunity to housing there I wondered why Clarence Chapman wasn't building on the coast instead of adding additional housing to an already overcrowded South Jackson? I mean doesn't it make sense? The Gulf Coast has Go Zone monies and housing tax credits would be nearly as hard to achieve there as it would be here. Sounds like a larger plan was afoot when they decided to build over here next to some of our nicer communities.

We've got all this vacant housing and yet somebody decided we needed more homes? Mr. Chapman explains how they're going to keep up the housing for 15 years, even changing lightbulbs for the residents in the lower income section of the property and then the residents of those properties can buy after 15 years at a 50% reduced market rate. I don't know if I would buy a house after renting it for 15 years. Hopefully after 15 years I could afford a larger place, so what happens to those homes?

A visit to the MS Home Corp website yielded some interesting tidbits. The qualifications to get the tax credits are pretty restrictive for the developer and really limits the type of tenant they would want to have in the area designated for low-income households.

Income limits for tenants are around $18,000 and no more than 30% of their income can be devoted to rent. This is for a family of 3. What that really boils down to is HUD subsidized housing. A family of three can barely survive on $18,000 and if $435 a month goes to rent and then they pay utilities, more than likely this family would be using HUD. If their income goes up beyond the limits they have to be offered housing in the regular part of the development. My fear is the housing will be offered but at such an inflated rate as to encourage them to leave alltogether!

The developer will also have a problem here. If tenants income rises, their residency is no longer considered as part of the basis for him receiving the tax credit. So what is the incentive for actually helping families develop if you're going to lose money?

Residents of Carriage Hills and all those other nice little neighborhoods along that area should really be taking notice, but unfortunately when folks are comfortable they often don't see the forrest for the trees.

To learn more about housing tax credits and the ways they will lower your property values visit this link: http://www.mshomecorp.com