Various recent news stories about “affordable housing,” “Section 8 housing,” and “public housing” used those terms interchangeably and, thus, are inaccurate and confusing to the public.

Public housing started during the Great Depression as a slum-clearance program that provided jobs and new housing for people who needed it. Until the early 1970s, it was largely self-sustaining and rents were determined locally. Most public housing was well-built and remains in place today, functioning as intended. Local examples include the Lake Auburn Towne House, Lincoln School Apartments, a handsome structure built in 1873, Blake Street Towers and Meadowview Apartments in Lewiston.

During the Richard Nixon era, there were two major policy changes. The first restricted public housing rents to 25 percent (now 30 percent) of household income, which required the federal government to begin providing operating subsidies for public housing authorities to make up for the lost rental income needed to pay the bills (heat, electricity, upkeep, payments-in-lieu of taxes, etc.).

The second created the Section 8 program — a private market program — offering new construction and substantial rehabilitation to produce housing, as well as certificates (now called vouchers), which allowed lower-income households to choose their own apartments leased from private landlords under contract with local housing authorities.

A portion of the Section 8 rent is paid by federal funds and buildings are owned primarily by for-profit entities that pay local property taxes.

In the 1980s, development was eliminated under Section 8 new construction and substantial rehab because they were viewed as too costly. They were replaced, with bipartisan support in Congress, and with leadership from Maine’s Sen. George Mitchell, by the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit Program.

The LIHTC program is greatly misunderstood because it is too complicated for our five-second-sound-bite society.

LIHTC is a financing mechanism to create affordable housing through the tax code, and for-profit investors buy tax credits used to finance the construction of the housing. There is no rental subsidy attached to the units under LIHTC rules and typically, unless a tenant can obtain a voucher to use in a LIHTC building, market rates of about $600 or $700 a month for a typical one- or two-bedroom apartment will be paid in most of Maine. Renters are paying the full rent. Typically, units are rented by the elderly or working families.

There has been no development of new “Section 8” projects since the Reagan era.

There has been a lot of discussion about the high development cost of LIHTC units, and that discussion raises a legitimate policy question, but we need to be careful of the five-second sound bite.

It says, these units are expensive. We could build a ranch house or buy a foreclosed one for less money. So why are we building them?

The expensive Portland units criticized by State Treasurer Bruce Poliquin have gone back to the drawing board to reduce costs, which include extraordinarily expensive underground parking mandated by the city of Portland.

Most LIHTC developments, while not cheap (a good thing, in the long term), provide very good-quality, energy-efficient housing which will remain affordable for 90 years, based on mandatory deed restrictions required by MaineHousing.

Another contributing factor to the cost-per-unit debate are the expenses related to historic preservation. Thanks to the foresight of the Maine Legislature, there is a state historic tax credit to match the federal tax credit, and many of the beautiful but vulnerable old buildings are being saved because of it. A number of historic properties have also used the LIHTC program to obtain the funds necessary to complete rehabilitation.

Certainly, meeting historic preservation standards costs more money, but it is hard to argue with the benefits. Attractive older buildings are brought back to life, frequently in downtowns, and redevelopment of surrounding neighborhoods typically follows.

Currently, many hundreds of Maine construction workers have jobs because of those developments.

Where would our economy be today without the many historic rehabs happening due to the actions of the Legislature? Local communities certainly welcome the real estate taxes paid by these properties, as well as the new life breathed into neighborhoods.

We need to continue developing affordable housing provided by Maine’s LIHTC Program, in a cost-effective manner. Without LIHTC, investors wouldn’t have a vehicle to provide funds supplementing scarce Maine resources for affordable housing.

A stunning 86,000 Maine households pay more than 50 percent of their income for housing costs, and the existing supply nowhere near meets the demand. Examples from the current Auburn Housing Authority waiting list include: applications for Lincoln School Apartments, 104, number of units, 10; applications for Broadview Acres, 148, number of units, 20; applications for Section 8 vouchers, 584, number available, 0 (all 590 in Auburn are being used).

We can have a factual discussion about the cost of affordable housing, but we should not be fooled by the five-second sound bite.

Rick Whiting is executive director of the Auburn Housing Authority.