Complete Story
06/26/2019
Bipartisan Legislation to Strengthen Low-Income Housing Tax Credit Introduced in Congress
On Tuesday, June 4, Senators Maria Cantwell (D-WA), Johnny Isakson (R-GA), Ron Wyden (D-OR), and Todd Young (R-IN), and Representatives Suzan DelBene (D-WA), Kenny Marchant (R-TX), Don Beyer (D-VA), and Jackie Walorski (R-IN), introduced the Affordable Housing Credit Improvement Act (AHCIA) of 2019 (S. 1703 and H.R. 3077), bipartisan legislation to strengthen the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit. LeadingAge applauded these legislators for their leadership and support of the Housing Credit.
Both S. 1703 and H.R. 3077 include a 50 percent increase in Housing Credit authority, from which the A Call to Invest In Our Neighborhoods (ACTION) Campaign estimates 384,500 additional affordable homes could be built over the next ten years. Both bills would also establish a minimum 4 percent Housing Credit rate, which would allow for an estimated 66,000 additional affordable homes to be built over the next ten years. In total, those two provisions alone in the AHCIA would provide for approximately 450,500 additional affordable homes over the next ten years.
The AHCIA also includes more than two dozen other provisions that would help preserve existing affordable housing, facilitate Housing Credit development for extremely low-income households and in hard-to-serve communities, provide state Housing Credit allocating agencies new tools to strengthen program oversight, and streamline rules to create efficiencies in program administration. New provisions in the AHCIA this Congress would help the Housing Credit better serve rural areas, encourage cost reasonableness, and maximize Private Activity Bond affordable housing resources, among other changes.
Visit www.rentalhousingaction.org for more information about efforts to expand, strengthen and protect the Housing Credit.