HOUSING WATCH : Creditable Buildup

A federal tax break that encourages businesses to invest in low-income housing is generating a $1.5-billion fund for new affordable housing. Over a five-year period, that could translate into 35,000 new or renovated apartments in Los Angeles, San Diego, San Francisco, Chicago, New York, Cleveland, Kansas City, Miami, Philadelphia, Phoenix, Seattle and Toledo, Ohio.

California stands to reap $200 million from the fund for construction and rehabilitation in poor neighborhoods, including parts of South-Central Los Angeles, Pasadena and Van Nuys.

The Local Support Initiative Corp. is coordinating this housing offensive. Local nonprofit developers who are trained to maximize every dollar will oversee most of the job-generating construction. The Bank of America has earmarked $40 million for this housing, mostly for low-income apartments in South-Central Los Angeles.

Decent affordable housing is in short supply throughout much of the state.

The scarcity is particularly horrendous in the major cities, where the cost of housing, despite the recession and plummeting real estate values, is relatively high. The high rents have forced many low-income families to double or triple up in crowded apartments and small houses. Some families live in unimproved garages.

Washington should respond to this housing need, but politics and high deficits have reduced the federal commitment to affordable housing. Tax credits, which only became permanent this year, fill some of that void. Let the building boom begin.