In a recent report Understanding Whom the LIHTC Program Serves, HUD examines several years of demographic and economic data on LIHTC tenants provided by state housing finance agencies through an annual data collection process mandated by HERA. This data ranges from information about LIHTC tenants related to race, ethnicity, family composition, age, income, use of rental assistance, disability status, and monthly rental payments of households residing in LIHTC properties.

While HUD recognizes that some of the data collected is incomplete and reporting varied across states, a few findings from the report include:

  • Race and ethnicity were not provided for 43.5 percent of reported heads of LIHTC households. Of reporting households, 41.4% were non-Hispanic/White, 37.9% were non-Hispanic/Black, and 14.3% were Hispanic. These percentages are based on 58.9% of LIHTC properties, and do not include data from the District of Columbia or New Mexico.
  • Approximately three-fourths of reported households include disability status for at least one household member. The reporting of disability status, however, varied across states.
  • More than one-third (36.4 percent) of reported LIHTC households had a least one member under 18 years old. Most states have between 25 and 50 percent of households with at least one member under 18 years old.
  • Nearly 33 percent of reported LIHTC households have an elderly member, and more than one-fourth (28.6 percent) of reported LIHTC households have a head of household at least 62 years old.
  • The overall median annual income was $17,066, although the median income varied considerably across states. About one-fourth of reported households earned less than $10,000, and approximately 60 percent of reported households nationwide earned less than $20,000.
  • Data sufficient to calculate household annual income as a percentage of area median gross income (AMGI) was provided for 28 states. In this, between one-third and one-half of LIHTC households in these states earn less than 30 percent of AMGI.
  • The percentage of households earning more than 30 percent of AMGI, but less than the federal maximum for initial qualification of 60 percent, accounts for nearly one-half of reported LIHTC households.
  • More than one-half of reported LIHTC households do not face an affordable rent burden, that is, they pay less than 30 percent of household income in rent – and three-fourths spend no more than 40 percent of their income on rent. Alternatively, 10 percent are severely burdened, that is they pay more than 50 percent of annual household income for rent.
  • While use of rental assistance was not indicated for one-third of reported tenants, for households for which this information was reported, slightly more than one-half either receive tenant-based rental assistance or reside in a unit receiving rental assistance.

Click here to read the full report.