| President Donald Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill” is known mainly for what it cuts: taxes, Medicaid coverage and food assistance among other things. But tucked inside the almost-900-page legislative text are a few lines that represent the biggest increase in incentives to build affordable housing in a generation. That has both real estate developers and housing advocates cheering. The revamp of three tax-based community development programs is expected to boost construction of new apartment buildings and renovation of older ones. Housing analysts saying they could spark the building of as many as 1.2 million more affordable units over the next 10 years than they would have without the changes.  Construction at an affordable housing development in Pennsylvania. Photographer: Rachel Wisniewski/Bloomberg It increases the size of tax credits awarded under the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit. It also decreases the share of money states and municipalities have to kick in for an affordable housing development. Those changes should make it easier for local governments and developers to do more deals at once. Meanwhile, an expanded pool of investors will be able to use the now-permanent New Markets Tax Credit. Community development organizations can tap into tax credits in the program to fund loans not only for housing development but also for new businesses, manufacturing facilities and cultural spaces. And it makes permanent Opportunity Zones, which gives investors tax breaks for putting money into projects in low-income areas. That program has drawn some criticism for failing to get private capital to the places where it’s most needed and accelerating gentrification that pushes poorer people out of their neighborhoods. The new legislation tweaks the rules for the program to address these concerns, imposing new transparency requirements and narrowing the parameters for which areas can qualify for the tax breaks. But there’s a potential catch: The programs rely on private developers to do the right thing, so to speak, while trying to make money. Jeff Monge, a developer focused on social impact investing, put it this way: “We don’t have a history of investors looking at doing good and well,” he said. “There’s a history of doing well.”— Emily Flitter | 
