Affordable housing projects in the United States have served as an integral part, and often the backbone, of broader community economic development (CED) initiatives for as long as community development corporations (CDCs) have existed. As the field of CED evolves, and critical thinking about the role of law and lawyers within it continues to develop, it is important that this thinking include a rigorous reevaluation of how affordable housing strategies can best support the broader aims of CED. Evidence from eighty years of significant federal policy intervention in affordable housing, fifty years of experimentation by CDCs, and thirty years of modern Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) financing teaches at least one lesson that will be particularly relevant to CED initiatives in the decades to come: privatization is a tool best used as a scalpel rather than a bludgeon. An example will help flesh out this principle.