OHCS Releases LIHTC Tenant Data

Oregon Housing and Community Services (OHCS), the agency that administers the LIHTC program in Oregon, recently released new data on the demographics of households served by LIHTC sites in 24 of the state’s 26 counties. This is the first publically available dataset on LIHTC properties to contain county-level data on tenant characteristics.

HUD collects data on members of LIHTC-assisted sites from state agencies that administer LIHTC, but these data aren’t made available to the general public. The data provided by OHCS include information on race, gender, age, disability status, and average income of LIHTC tenants aggregated to the county level. OHCS collected data on 3,759 households.

According to the data, 74 percent of LIHTC-assisted households across the state had a white head of household, and 23 percent had a head of household who was non-white. Washington County (Hillsboro and Beaverton) had the highest percentage of non-white heads of household at 53 percent. Statewide, 29 percent of households had a Hispanic head of household; Hood River County had the highest percentage at 82 percent.

In total, 61 percent of households statewide had a female head of household (including those with and without children), ranging from a low of 48 percent in Hood River and Multnomah County (Portland), to a high of 85 percent in Jefferson County. Furthermore, 21 percent of households were headed by an adult aged 62 or older, and 7 percent had a head of household with a disability. The average income of LIHTC-assisted tenants across the state was $19,535, ranging from $8,504 in Malhear County to $29,260 in Hood River County.