Takeaways from AP’s report on affordable housing disappearing across the U.S.

Associated Press/Report for America

LOS ANGELES (AP) — While Americans continue to struggle under high rents, as many as 223,000 affordable housing units could disappear in the next five years alone. Those units were built with the federal Low-Income Housing Tax Credit, which gives developers tax credits in exchange for keeping rents low. But there’s a catch. The buildings typically only need to be kept affordable for a minimum of 30 years. For the wave of construction in the 1990s, those deadlines are arriving now, threatening to eliminate affordable housing when Americans need it most. Some local governments or nonprofits are buying buildings to keep them affordable, but many renters still face huge rent increases or eviction.