Until recently, David Gasson had a trusty Rolodex that held contact information for affordable housing developers across the country, members of Congress, White House advisers, and even an Oscar winner. While that old-time card holder is gone, his contact list remains immense.
Not that Gasson would ever brag about this. He is happy working behind the scenes, strategically rallying support for affordable housing and the federal low-income housing tax credit (LIHTC) program.
This year, he helped score a mammoth victory. Gasson, along with many other advocates, successfully campaigned for a permanent 12% LIHTC allocation increase beginning in 2026 and other program changes estimated to finance more than 1 million additional affordable housing units over the next decade.
After seeking these improvements for years, supporters finally saw Congress approve the LIHTC program’s largest expansion as part of the One Big Beautiful Bill. Little known outside of its circle, the mighty LIHTC is the nation’s most important financial tool in creating affordable housing.
“This is a process,” Gasson says, emphasizing that the recent victory was not the result of some new push in the past year but rather a sustained decades-long effort. “This has been something we’ve been building toward over time.”
Co-founder and partner at MG Housing Strategies and executive director of the Housing Advisory Group, he likes to tell his colleagues in the industry that “the LIHTC always wins.”
“It takes us time, but we’ve done nothing but win since the program was created,” Gasson says, citing how the housing credit has steadily grown and improved since its creation in 1986. But, it hasn’t been easy.
Major Presence
One of the people at the forefront of building bipartisan support for the housing credit, Gasson is marking his 30th year in affordable housing. Earlier in his career, he worked on Capitol Hill for former Sen. George Mitchell (D-Maine) and Rep. Dick Gephardt (D-Mo.) and then joined Boston Capital, a longtime affordable housing finance provider, in 1995, getting a crash course on the subject.
He and industry veteran Bob Moss formed MG Housing Strategies, an advocacy firm, in 2021.
“David has the unique gift of incorporating his political instinct and his commonsense into a viable and achievable solution when problem solving—he creates a solution that unravels the problem into fixable components,” explains Moss. “David does not overcomplicate.”
He’s also approachable—and genuinely enthusiastic—when talking about housing issues, even if it cuts into his personal time. A Napa wine tour once left without him while he was talking with a Congress member.
As a result, Gasson is a familiar figure in affordable housing and in Washington, D.C.
“Everyone who cares about affordable housing knows and respects David,” says Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.). “He educates people by bringing real data to tell the story and to make the case for why we need to change or expand policies. And, he is very intentional about having Congress members go visit housing developments in their states. Nothing is more impactful than talking directly with the people whose lives are changed because they have an affordable place to live. I’m sure no one will be surprised when I tell you he is very persistent.
Cantwell, a longtime supporter of the LIHTC program, adds that Gasson is “strategic and a straight shooter.”
“That makes him a successful advocate,” she says “He knows how to develop a game plan and get advocates focused and engaged to get achievable results. It takes all the players— private sector, nonprofits, state and local officials, financial professionals—to make affordable housing development happen. But you need someone like David to make sure, when it comes to advocacy, that all those resources are deployed effectively.”
More To Do
In addition to the recent LIHTC expansion, Gasson helped press for key program improvements in the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008 and other notable legislation.
He is a member of the Affordable Housing Tax Credit Coalition and the National Leased Housing Association. He also serves on the board of directors of the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library Foundation and previously served on the community advisory board of WBUR, Boston’s NPR news station.
Despite the recent legislative successes, he is far from done lobbying for the industry. Along with others, he is working on regulatory reform that will drive down development costs and ideas for getting more investors into the LIHTC program.
“I feel good every day when I go work. I feel good every day when I advocate on the Hill or talk with groups around the country about housing,” he says.