Representatives Keith Ellison (D-MN) and Gwen Moore (D-WI) have issued a Dear Colleague letter calling on Congress to keep housing dollars within housing in any comprehensive tax reform bill.
Comprehensive tax reform is one of Congress’s top priorities. Tax benefits that largely serve high income households—like the mortgage interest deduction and other homeownership tax benefits—are on the table.
The Dear Colleague letter urges Congress to reinvest any savings from reforming these tax benefits into rental housing programs benefitting low income households—the national Housing Trust Fund, the Low Income Housing Tax Credit with changes to ensure deeper income targeting, and rental assistance and production programs—instead of using the savings to lower tax rates or reduce the deficit.
Mr. Ellison’s Legislative Director Carol Wayman announced the Dear Colleague letter at the relaunch of the NLIHC-led United for Homes campaign on January 11. The United for Homes campaign calls for making modest reforms to the mortgage interest deduction (MID) to provide a tax break to millions of additional low and moderate income homeowners and to reinvest the significant savings into affordable rental housing programs that serve households with the greatest needs.
NLIHC and the United for Homes campaign—which is endorsed by more than 2,300 national, state, and local organizations and local government officials—supports the Dear Colleague letter and urges all representatives to sign on by the February 10 deadline.
Given America's growing affordable rental housing crisis, it is critical that Congress reinvest scarce federal resources into providing affordable rental homes for people with the greatest needs to end homelessness and housing poverty.
To take action:
- Ask your representative to sign onto the Dear Colleague letter urging Congress to keep housing dollars within housing in any comprehensive tax reform bill. The deadline for representatives to sign on is February 10. Click here to access your representative’s phone number: http://bit.ly/2kCboom
- Sign our petition in support of Rep. Ellison's Dear Colleague Letter and join more than 2,000 organizations who support reinvesting savings from tax reform into affordable housing. Click here to sign our petition: http://bit.ly/2jn2lCO
- Share this letter with your network and encourage others to call their representatives and sign the letter.
A copy of the Dear Colleague letter is at: http://bit.ly/2j2j8MM
A copy of NLIHC’s Call to Action is at: http://bit.ly/2k85mLO
NLIHC President and CEO Diane Yentel’s statement supporting Mr. Ellison’s effort is at: http://nlihc.org/press/releases/7413
Join the United for Homes campaign at: http://nlihc.org/unitedforhomes/support