Minneapolis and St. Paul Update Low Income Housing Tax Credit Programs

The Low-Income Housing Tax Credits (LIHTC) program incentivizes housing developers throughout Minnesota to develop housing projects that include a smoke-free policy. The LIHTC program is a federal financing program for qualified residential rental properties. The LIHTC program offers investors a reduction in tax liability in exchange for capital to build eligible affordable rental housing units in new construction, rehabilitation, or acquisition with rehabilitation.

There are several LIHTC administrators in Minnesota and each of them lists smoke-free housing as a priority in their QAP. This increases smoke-free housing opportunities for low-income renters and promotes health equity in a community’s housing stock. Two administrators, the cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul, recently updated their 2021 Low Income Housing Tax Credit programs. Now, in order for a housing project in Minneapolis or St. Paul to receive a point on the Qualified Allocation Plan (QAP) for having a smoke-free policy, the policy must prohibit the use of e-cigarettes in addition to smoking other forms of commercial tobacco.

Minneapolis and St. Paul also updated the language in the QAP to make a distinction between commercial and traditional tobacco. Traditional tobacco has been used in sacred ways by Indigenous communities and tribes for centuries. Making this distinction respects these traditions.

Learn More

Low Income Housing Tax Credits in Minnesota – Live Smoke Free

Low Income Housing Tax Credits – U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development

Low Income Housing Tax Credits – National Housing Law Project

E-Cigarette and Vape Use in Multi-Unit Housing – Live Smoke Free

Traditional vs. Commercial Tobacco – National Native Network

Why the World Will Never Be Tobacco Free: Reframing “Tobacco Control” into a Traditional Tobacco Movement