54 Members of Congress Urge House Leadership to Expand Housing Credit Production This Year

This morning, a bipartisan coalition of members of the House of Representatives led by Affordable Housing Credit Improvement Act sponsors Suzan DelBene (D-WA) and Brad Wenstrup (R-OH) sent a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) urging them to expand and strengthen the Low Income Housing Tax Credit as part of an end-of-year legislative vehicle.

Twenty-eight Democrats and 26 Republicans signed the letter, which specifically calls on Congress to restore a cut to the Housing Credit by extending the 12.5 percent allocation increase that expired at the end of 2021 and to adjust the bond financing threshold by lowering it from 50 to 25 percent to expand production with the 4 percent Housing Credit. According to an estimate by Novogradac, these two provisions on their own would build or preserve approximately 1.54 million new homes over 10 years.

As Congress returns this week from the Thanksgiving break, it heads into the final stretch of the year with a long list of legislative to-do items. Now is a crucial time for housing advocates to engage to encourage members to pass tax legislation that would include these essential production provisions. Last week, the NCSHA- and Enterprise Community Partners-led ACTION Campaign spearheaded a grassroots stakeholders letter to Congress urging it to increase the Housing Credit by 50 percent — at a minimum restoring the 12.5 percent cut to the program — and lower the bond financing threshold to 25 percent. With so many priorities on the list for congressional action, it is important Congress hears from advocates for affordable housing that these priorities must be top of the list. NCSHA encourages you to use both the congressional sign-on letter and the ACTION letter in your outreach.

Read the announcement from Reps. DelBene and Wenstrup.