Arkansas Low Income Apartments

Low Income Housing Information

Low income housing can be a godsend, but if you don't know how to apply, or who to get your information to, how can you ever expect to be approved?

Since laws and procedure vary from state to state, you'll need to learn a few specifics before applying. We can help!

What are Low Income Apartments in Arkansas?

Arkansas is one of the poorest states in the country, with only West Virginia and Mississippi having lower median household incomes. This means that comparatively speaking, rents in Arkansas are already well below the national average, but are still too high for some forty-three percent of the state's population that qualify as low income. Further complicating the picture is a lack of modern housing and development. Seventy-five percent of all housing in Arkansas is more than thirty years old, being constructed prior to 1980. Even during the national real estate boom, most new developments in Arkansas were confined to the Little Rock area or North Memphis (whose economy is tied to that of Memphis, Tennessee as opposed to Arkansas).

Many states have relied heavily on the federal government's Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) to encourage the development of low income housing. This dollar-for-dollar tax credit is administered by state authorities and allocated to developers that build housing units specifically to be rented to low income people according to the relevant federal guidelines. In states where there is a lot of property development, this tax credit has played a key role in addressing the shortage of affordable housing for low income people. However, this has not worked as well in Arkansas simply because of the lack of overall housing development. The LIHTC only really works if the developer is also constructing for-profit housing in a separate development and since Arkansas lacks a lot of real estate development in general, the impact of the LIHTC has been extremely limited. The state has also provided an additional incentive to developers through its Tax-Exempt Multi-Family Housing Bonds program administrated by the state government, but only with limited success.

Instead, Section 8 - or the Housing Choice Voucher Program - housing is much more commonly accepted in Arkansas, with landlords being much more willing to accept the complications of accepting Section 8 vouchers in order to keep their units rented. Further, both project-based and tenant-based Section 8 programs are commonplace in Arkansas, so low income people are not necessarily restricted to renting in undesirable urban housing projects. The state also operates the federal HOME program, which among other things can be grant money to extremely low income households to pay rent or can be given to owners for the rehabilitation of properties for low income people.

Most housing assistance programs and resources are administrated at the state level by the Arkansas Development Finance Authority (ADFA, www.arkansas.gov/adfa/) which presents comprehensive information about the various programs available to Arkansas residents in need of housing assistance. Further help and resources are provided by Housing Arkansas (www.housingarkansas.org) which is a coalition of over a hundred affordable housing advocacy groups and individuals in Arkansas and works closely with the state government to address many of the state's housing problems for low income people. People looking for low income apartments or other subsidized housing in Arkansas should probably begin their research by visiting these two websites in order to get a better idea of what is available and to proceed.