Association for Public Policy Analysis & Management

Many studies on the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC), the largest federal subsidy program for affordable low-income housing, rely on a national spatial database. A fundamental task in the use of the database is to identify the location of individual LIHTC projects by associating an address record with a point on the map. However, the literature often neglects how accurately the geocoded addresses are positioned and offers little insights into its impact on program evaluation. I examined these issues for Los Angeles county, California, by combining the federal database with local assessor’s parcel map as an ancillary data for accuracy measurements. I found that the positional accuracy of geocoded LIHTC database is generally high, but the accuracy varies depending on the measurement method and areal unit of analysis. A demonstration analysis on transit-accessibility shows that the inaccurate database overstates transit-accessibility of LIHTC projects. This is likely to mislead researchers and policymakers in evaluating locational affordability of LIHTC program. I conclude by recommending creating parcel-level LIHTC database to increase positional accuracy of geocoded LIHTC address records and consequently enhance the quality of LIHTC program evaluation.