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Home / Hopkins Housing & Health Collaborative / Projects – Hopkins Housing & Health Collaborative / Mapping the use of the Low Income Housing Tax Credit for Assisted Living

Mapping the use of the Low Income Housing Tax Credit for Assisted Living

Background: Each day, approximately 31,000 assisted living facilities serve over 850,000 Americans, providing them with personal care, such as assistance with activities of daily living (ADLs, e.g., dressing, bathing, toileting), instrumental ADLs (e.g., laundry, housework, meal preparation) and health maintenance tasks (e.g., medication management). While assisted living has traditionally served individuals paying privately for their care, the number of low-income older adults dually enrolled in Medicare and Medicaid served in assisted living has increased dramatically. Despite the move towards increasing access to assisted care for low income older adults, it still remains out of range for many low income seniors.

At the same time, there is an increasing focus on increasing the supply of affordable housing. A key mechanism through which affordable housing is financed in the United States is by the Low Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC). Since its inception in 1986, LIHTC has financed the construction and rehabilitation of over 3 million housing units. The extent to which LIHTC has been used to support the development of assisted housing remains largely unknown. 

Approach: This project involves a multi-methods approach. First, we will map the location of assisted living and LIHTC funded properties to understand the extent to which LIHTC financing has been used to support assisted living. Through qualitative interviews with key stakeholders, we will determine best practices from assisted living facilities that have successfully used LIHTC funding. In the final portion of the project, we will build a toolkit for decisionmakers to facilitate the potential use LIHTC financing to support assisted living for low income seniors.

Team: The study is led by Craig Pollack and Kali Thomas and includes Paula Carder, Rebecca Smith, Janiece Taylor, and Jordan Kaplan.

Funding: The study is funded by Enterprise Community Partners and by the Johns Hopkins Discovery Award.