Despite worldwide attention to climate change, national leadership in the US has played a marginal role in creating strong collaborative networks to confront climate change. Some state governments have been more active, but the level of engagement and leadership has been mixed; thus, leaving a great deal of responsibility in the hands of municipal governments.
US states have integrated green building with affordable housing programs to achieve multiple environmental objectives, e.g., improving energy efficiency and water conservation, increasing indoor environmental quality, providing safe, healthy, and productive built environments, and promoting sustainable environmental stewardship. Simultaneously, empirical measures have shown that green building increases housing affordability, through energy-efficiency savings that constitute a significant percentage of the annual income of extremely low-, very low-, and low-income families.
What components of green building are promoted in the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) program? What happens to innovative green building criteria after adoption? Are all US states contributing equally to environmental sustainability through the LIHTC program? Why are some LIHTC-allocating agencies more innovative than others in adopting and maintaining green building criteria?
