The Department of Housing and Urban Development is telling the public that Opportunity Zones, a federal tax program aimed at struggling neighborhoods, no longer have an expiration date. The department also puts a large number on what the program has done so far.
In a release from Grand Rapids, Michigan, HUD said on October 16, 2026 that Opportunity Zones are now permanent and credits them with more than $100 billion of private investment in the areas they cover. Both points are HUD’s own statements, not independent measurements, and the release sits in HUD’s press room with the department’s other announcements.
What did HUD actually say about permanence?
HUD says that under President Trump’s Working Families Tax Cuts Act, Opportunity Zones “have been made permanent.” The department adds that enhanced incentives will build on the program, including a rolling designation cycle, expanded incentives for underserved rural communities and a 10-year investment timeline.
The zones began in 2017, when the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act created them. The Internal Revenue Service describes thousands of low-income communities in all 50 states, the District of Columbia and five territories as designated zones, defined by census tract.
Where does the $100 billion figure come from?
HUD’s wording is that the program has “poured more than $100 billion of private investment” into the zones. The department calls it one of the largest economic development programs in history. It also says the zones have lifted more than one million Americans out of poverty, helped create more than half a million jobs and led to more than 400,000 housing units in distressed communities.
Every one of those numbers is a HUD claim made in a press release. The release does not show how the department counted them, and none of them is a payment to a resident. They describe investment and building, not money that reaches a household.
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A person living inside a zone should read the figures that way. Whether a neighborhood gained a job or an apartment building from the program is a local question, and the answer can differ from one zone to the next.
Does living in a zone change anything for a household?
Not directly. The tax rules the IRS describes are for investors. The agency says investors can temporarily defer tax on eligible gains when they invest in a Qualified Opportunity Fund, and that taxpayers can invest in the zones through those funds. Nothing on that page describes a benefit for a renter, a homeowner or a retiree because of where they live.
HUD’s Assistant Secretary for Community Planning and Development, Ronnie Kurtz, said at the conference that Opportunity Zones are not a top-down government effort to revitalize communities, nor are they handouts. He described them as long-term investments built on public-private partnerships.
That framing matters for residents. A zone designation can bring investors to a neighborhood, but it does not lower anyone’s rent, property tax or utility bill on its own.
What was the Grand Rapids event?
The release covers a HUD Center for Faith conference called “Opportunity Zones: Economic Development and Community Revitalization by the Power of Faith.” HUD says it was the fifth in a national series, hosted with the department’s Great Lakes regional team. Panels covered business opportunities in the zones, project funding, attainable housing options, federal government resources and the role of faith organizations.
HUD Great Lakes Regional Administrator Duey Stroebel described Opportunity Zones as one of the most effective tools for bringing private investment into communities that need it, and said that when investors, developers and faith leaders share a vision, real gains for families and neighborhoods in Michigan are possible. Kurtz added that as communities prepare for new designations, the point is to bring new life to places that have often been ignored.
How to tell whether an address is in a zone
The IRS directs people to find qualified zone locations by census tract and links to HUD’s Opportunity Zones map. Anyone who wants to know whether a home or a rental sits inside a zone can enter the address there.
HUD’s own Opportunity Zones page carries a statement from Secretary Scott Turner that reinvesting in America is at the heart of the President’s economic vision and the cornerstone of Opportunity Zones. The page is the department’s starting point for how the program works.
The IRS lists recent guidance for the program, including Notice 2026-40 on transitional guidance, Notice 2026-55 asking for comments and Revenue Procedure 2026-14 on nominating census tracts. The IRS page was last reviewed on September 24, 2026. It does not itself state that the program is permanent, so the permanence claim rests on HUD’s statement.
The new designations HUD mentions have not been announced in the release, and it names no date for when communities will learn which tracts are added. Residents who read about new zones should look for the tract list on HUD’s map before assuming a neighborhood is included.
Renting or owning in a zone and paying the bills?
An Opportunity Zone designation is an investor tax break. It pays nothing to the people who live there, and a household in a zone still faces the same rent, property tax and utility bills as anyone else. The programs that do lower a household’s own costs are opt-in, which means they have to be applied for, and many go unclaimed.
That is where The Benefits Checklist turns the story from the zone to the household. It scans 11 benefit programs retirees most often miss, including Medicare Savings Programs, SNAP, heating help and senior property-tax breaks, and it includes a 50-state phone directory for the offices that handle them.
See the 11-program checklist and 50-state phone directory for lowering a household’s costs →
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This article was produced with AI assistance and edited for accuracy against the sources linked above.
