bvc_june2017

76 77 ing Authorities (HAs). HUD administers federal aid to local HAs which manage the housing for low-income residents at rents they can afford. While Public Housing Funds go to the individual HAs, both for capi- tal improvements and for their day-to-day operations,Housing Choice Vouchers are a form of monetary assistance that go to very low-income individuals and families so that they can rent, lease, or purchase safe, decent, and affordable privately-owned housing. Finally,HUD also provides what is known as Section 8 Assistance for Public Housing Relocation/Replacement. Section 8 vouchers can be allocated to public housing tenants who are forced to move because of the rehabilitation or demolition of their public housing unit, allowing them to relocate into privately-owned housing and still pay affordable rent.This assistance helps make the demoli- tion of obsolete public housing projects possible,while supporting displaced residents. When we first spoke with Graham, he report- ed that one of VIHA’s newest developments was the Louis E. Brown (LEB) public housing devel- opment. It’s first two phases –102 family units and 40 senior villas had been completed - and Graham recently added that the agency will be- gin construction on the third phase of the proj- ect, LEB 3, a 90-unit family development on St. Croix, later this year. “It’s an LIHTC (Low Income Housing Tax Credit),” he explains. “A mixed- fi- nanced, low-income housing type project with project-based vouchers.” The Low Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) was created by the Tax Reform Act of 1986 in order to encourage the construction and re- habilitation of rental housing for low income individuals and families. The LIHTC is a tax incentive intended to increase private participa- tion in the development of low-income rental housing. Section 42 of the IRS Code provides an income tax credit to owners of certain new- ly constructed or substantially rehabilitated low-income rental housing projects which are both income– and rent-restricted. Graham also told us that over the next eight to ten years, VIHA would like to build as many as 1,000 new, affordable housing apartments. One recent project completed by the agency that is keeping it on schedule is Sugar Estate, an 80-unit senior complex on St. Thomas that opened in May 2016. “The project-based, Sec- tion 8 development is fully occupied with a THE VIRGIN ISLANDS HOUSING AUTHORITY