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Today, Representatives Suzan DelBene (WA-01), Darin LaHood (IL-16), Brad Wenstrup (OH-02), Don Beyer (VA-08), Claudia Tenney (NY-24), and Jimmy Panetta (CA-20) sent a bipartisan letter urging House Leadership to include provisions from the Affordable Housing Credit Improvement Act in any potential tax legislation brought to the floor.

The nationwide housing crisis continues to worsen. Currently, nearly one-in-four renters – over 10 million families – spend more than half of their household income on rent, cutting into other essential expenses like child care, medication, groceries, and transportation. At the same time, nearly 600,000 Americans are experiencing homelessness on any given day, an increase over pre-COVID levels.

The Affordable Housing Credit Improvement Act would support the financing of nearly 2 million new affordable homes by:

• Increasing the amount of credits allocated to each state. The legislation would increase the number of credits available to states by 50 percent for the next two years and make the temporary 12.5 percent increase secured in 2018 permanent—which has already helped build more than 59,000 additional affordable housing units nationwide.
• Increasing the number of affordable housing projects that can be built using private activity bonds. This provision would stabilize financing for workforce housing projects built using private activity bonds by decreasing the amount of private activity bonds needed to secure Housing Credit funding. As a result, projects would have to carry less debt, and more projects would be eligible to receive funding.
• Improving the Housing Credit program to better serve at-risk and underserved communities. The legislation would also make improvements to the program to better serve veterans, victims of domestic violence, formerly homeless students, Native American communities, and rural Americans.

The AHCIA has reached 200 cosponsors, with 100 Republicans and 100 Democrats in support.

A copy of the letter can be found here.