The Low-Income Housing Program in the Louisiana and Mississippi Gulf Opportunity Zones
Client
Congressional Research ServiceDescription
A series of tabulations of data contained in a HUD database for Louisiana and Mississippi revealed that prior to Hurricane Katrina, 500 low income tax credit housing (LIHTC) developments (consisting of 24,107 units) were built in Louisiana and 302 LIHTC developments (consisting of 13,970 units) were built in Mississippi between the inception of the LIHTC Program in 1986 and 2004 (when hurricane Katrina hit). Additionally, GIS maps of the same data revealed that, although these developments were scattered throughout both states, they were heavily concentrated in a few major urban areas. Further, a series of regression analyses, revealed a multicollinearity of several factors including ethnicity, education and income. In other words, the regression analyses did not reveal poverty as the main determinant for the location of housing. Moreover, though the HUD data base provided researchers with some idea of the amount of low income housing built in both states since the inception of the LIHTC Program', varying estimates of the amount of housing damaged and destroyed as well as differing reports of amounts housing units "allocated" for rebuilding make it difficult for both state and federal officials to determine the amount of additional federal housing assistance that should be provided.Citation
Christman, Casey; Johnson, David; Rho, Eunju; Stein, Eric; Taylor, Beth (2008). The Low-Income Housing Program in the Louisiana and Mississippi Gulf Opportunity Zones. Available electronically from https : / /hdl .handle .net /1969 .1 /97012.