Affordable Housing Program Threatens Tenants With EvictionRandy Shawbyline‚ Jul. 05‚ 2006An Orange County-based management company is attempting to use the federal Low Income Housing Tax Credit program (LIHTC) to displace dozens of Tenderloin tenants from their homes. The company also seeks to remove the 50 plus unit apartment building at 1030 Post from San Francisco’s rent control law. Although the LIHTC is designed to increase affordable housing, as applied at 1030 Post Street the program will raise rents for virtually all tenants, evict those unable to pay the higher rents, and permanently exempt the entire building from rent control. Even more troubling is that the LIHTC gives tax breaks for “creating” affordable housing without investors having to construct or substantially renovate a single unit. This means that 1030 Post could set off a wave of speculator acquisitions of large buildings, and the subsequent loss of rent control protections for tenants paying below-market rents. Preventing this development requires the San Francisco Rent Board and the Board of Supervisors to act to keep LIHTC properties under rent control. |