Nearly 200 local government leaders representing cities, counties, and other municipalities sent a letter to congressional leadership on September 21 urging enactment of the “Affordable Housing Credit Improvement Act” (AHCIA, S.1557/H.R.3238). The AHCIA would expand and reform the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC), the largest national affordable housing production program in the U.S. (see Memo 5/15). The letter was led by the ACTION Campaign, in partnership with the National League of Cities, the National Association of Counties, and Mayors & CEOs for U.S. Housing Investment and calls for “a number of provisions that would enhance the [LIHTC] program and enable cities and counties like ours to better serve the affordable housing needs in our communities.”
LIHTC is the primary source of financing for the construction and preservation of affordable housing, but homes financed solely with the tax credit are very rarely affordable to renter households with the lowest incomes. If enacted, the “Affordable Housing Credit Improvement Act” would reform the tax credit to provide additional incentives to developers to build homes affordable to the extremely low-income households who are most impacted by the housing crisis, as well as underserved rural and Native American communities. These improvements to the LIHTC program are a necessary step toward addressing our nation’s affordable housing crisis.
The letter – signed by 184 local government leaders – highlighted three important provisions in the “Affordable Housing Credit Improvement Act,” including an important NLIHC priority: basis boosts for LIHTC to better serve hard-to-reach communities. “The legislation includes provisions that would allow basis boosts for extremely low-income tenants, bond-financed Housing Credit properties, Difficult Development Areas, tribal areas, and rural communities,” the letter states. “By allowing certain projects a ‘boost’ on their eligible basis, this would make more projects financially feasible for these harder-to-serve groups.”
Read the letter at: https://tinyurl.com/456um4rc
Read the ACTION Campaign’s press statement about the letter at: https://tinyurl.com/5dttehmz
Urge your members of Congress to pass LIHTC reforms through the Affordable Housing Credit Improvement Act at: https://p2a.co/ZhQtlH2