By Ariella Cohen, The Lens

Even as President Barack Obama agrees to keep Bush-era tax cuts, a
consensus is still lacking on an extension of tax credits needed to
rebuild New Orleans' Big Four housing developments, as well as other
Gulf Coast complexes.
Tucked away in the massive tax bill
Obama is trying to pass in the last days of the current session of
Congress -- before a new Republican majority takes over the U.S. House
of Representatives -- are several affordable-housing incentives critical
to the Gulf Coast and in particular New Orleans. But while Obama has
conceded to Republicans by agreeing to extend tax cuts for the wealthy
if they agree to, among other things, extend emergency unemployment
benefits, there is no word on whether the final bill will include the
critical affordable housing incentives written into earlier versions.
Among its myriad tax code provisions, the bill under debate, S. 3793,
proposes to extend a low-income housing tax credit exchange program for
a year, reauthorize a New Markets Tax Credit program and fund a
National Housing Trust Fund meant to pay for affordable rental housing
in all states with a shortage, including Louisiana. Introduced by Senate
Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) in September, the bill
has fallen victim to partisan haggling. It still must be passed by the
House and the Senate.
Most critically to New Orleans, the bill includes a two-year
extension of the placed-in-service date for projects being financed with
Gulf Opportunity Zone tax credits created after Hurricane Katrina.
Without the extension of the current placed-in-service deadline of Dec.
31, Louisiana stands to lose at least 1,770 units and $398 million in
total investment dollars for projects that will not forward without more
time, according to Louisiana Housing Finance Agency documents. Another
3,230 units across 66 complexes are in jeopardy across the other Gulf
Coast states.
Among the developers relying on the credits to finance post-Katrina
housing projects are those building mixed-income communities on the site
of the former B.W. Cooper and Lafitte public housing developments. At
Lafitte, where 220 units are nearly complete, the failure to pass an
extension could cost 430 still-unbuilt units financed through deals that
rely on the tax credits and have not yet closed, according to the
finance authority. For B.W. Cooper, the end of the tax credit program
could kill the 410-unit project completely because none of its financing
has closed and construction hasn't started. Project developer KBK
Enterprises did not return several calls made over the past week
requesting comment. In September, company Chief Financial Officer Mike
McCroskey told The Times-Picayune that the company was "at the mercy of the federal government."
Without the extension, Lafitte developers Providence Community
Housing and Enterprise Community Partners, will have to come up with a
way to replace the revenue projected to come from the GO Zone tax
credits.  Reached Tuesday, a spokeswoman for Providence reaffirmed the
company's commitment to completing the 650-unit project, with or without
the credits.
"What I can say for today and for your upcoming story is that we are
fully committed to building every unit at Lafitte as planned,"
spokeswoman Andreanecia M. Morris said.
U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development officials have said
in the past the agency is also committed to completing Lafitte, with or
without the credits, though HUD has not yet detailed where new money for
the project would come from.

The scramble at Lafitte and B.W. Cooper comes after years of predictions
of just such a crunch. Within months of Katrina, the Bush
administration allocated $170 million in GO Zone credits to Louisiana.
The state housing finance agency had barely begun to distribute the
federal outlay when the national economy tanked, taking down with it the
market for such credits.  As of Dec.1, $113 million out of the $170
million credits -- 66 percent -- were placed in service, helping to create 9,682 units
and generate a total of $1.68 billion in total investment, according to
the finance authority.
The finance authority projects that another $23.3 million in credits
will be placed in service by the end of the month, creating another
1,563 units.
The expiration of the GO Zone credits will mean that the finance
agency will have to reallocate $25.9 million in other tax credits and
$87.9 million in Community Development Block Grants given to GO Zone
projects, according to its records. After months of advocating for the
extension in Washington, Louisiana Housing Finance Agency President
Milton Bailey is cautiously optimistic that the extension will be passed
in before the winter recess.
"We have received much support from our Louisiana delegation and
positive feedback from both sides of the aisle," he said. "However, in
this uncertain environment, it is simply responsible for us to also make
plans to proceed without these decisions being made in our favor."
Louisiana Democratic Sen. Mary Landrieu has advocated loudly for the
extension's passage, telling colleagues on the hill that her vote on
this matter depends on the inclusion of the GO Zone credits.
"Any compromise reached must have the important GO Zone tax credit
extensions that are needed so desperately in Louisiana," she said in a
statement released Saturday. "If they are not included, construction
that is under way will be shut down, costing 13,000 hard-working
Louisianians their jobs and destroying the opportunity for thousands of
families to get affordable, quality housing."
While Landrieu"s Republican counterpart, Sen. David Vitter,
supported the GO Zone credits when they were introduced, he has kept
silent on the issue in recent weeks, instead choosing to focus his
energy on a provision in a separate bill that he says would protect American taxpayers from "funding foreign bailouts."