Although not many of you have had an opportunity to meet her, I thought it was fitting to say farewell to the “godmother” of the housing tax credit: Grace Robertson. Grace has been the IRS Section 42 program analyst for 15 years.
She announced at this year’s National Council of State Housing Agencies (NCSHA) conference in Chicago that she was going to retire near the end of this year, which sent shock waves through the Low Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) industry.
Grace was a pivotal factor in the success of the program. She also developed the Audit Technique Guide and the 8823 Guide that made the program rules easier to understand and provided a means to apply these rules to our projects.
For those of us who had the opportunity to sit and talk with Grace, it was very evident she held great compassion for those in need of affordable and safe housing across the country and would do everything in her power to make sure the LIHTC program succeeded as a means of providing it.
For all of her hard work, we tip our hat to Grace and wish her the best of luck with her future endeavors.