HUD Publishes Data on 2021 Housing Credit Tenant Characteristics

This week, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Office of Policy Development and Research published demographic data on tenants living in Housing Credit properties in 2021. This data, collected annually from state Housing Credit allocating agencies as required by the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008, includes state-by-state details on tenant race, ethnicity, family composition, age, income, use of rental assistance, disability status, and monthly rent burden.

The racial breakdown of tenants living in Housing Credit properties in 2021 was 24.4 percent White; 27.3 percent Black/African American; 10.8 percent Hispanic of any race; 1.3 percent American Indian/Alaska Native; 1.3 percent multiracial; 0.8 percent Asian; and 0.4 percent Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander, while 33.8 percent of tenants opted not to report on racial characteristics.

Approximately 8.6 percent of Housing Credit tenants reported having a disability.

In 30.6 percent of households at least one household member is under the age of 18, while in 36 percent of households at least one member is over the age of 65.

The median annual income of households living in Housing Credit properties in 2021 was $18,600. Approximately 52.2 percent of households had incomes at or below 30 percent of area median income (AMI), 15.6 percent were between 30.1 and 40 percent of AMI, 13.5 percent were between 40.1 and 50 percent of AMI, 8.8 percent were between 50.1 and 60 percent of AMI, and 10 percent had incomes above 60 percent of AMI.

Most Housing Credit tenants (59 percent) paid 30 percent or less of their income for rent. However, as the Housing Credit program is a capital assistance program and thus does not tie rent to individual tenant income, some households remain rent burdened, even if that burden is lower than it would be if the household rented a market-rate unit. Specifically, 26 percent were cost burdened, meaning they paid more than 30 percent but less than 50 percent of their income for rent, and 12.3 percent were severely cost burdened, meaning they paid more than 50 percent of their income for rent. In 2.6 percent of the cases this data could not be calculated.

The Housing Credit and rental assistance programs complement each other, with 40.2 percent of households reporting receiving some degree of rental assistance in 2021. Only 34.2 percent of households receiving rental assistance reported the source of that assistance. Of those, 22.4 percent received HUD Project-Based Rental Assistance and 18.2 percent received Housing Choice Vouchers; nine percent received HUD Project-Based Vouchers. Other sources of rental assistance included the Public Housing Operating Subsidy, HOME Tenant-Based Rental Assistance, HUD Section 8 Moderate Rehabilitation, and USDA 521 Rental Assistance Program.