| Reps. Pat Tiberi (R-OH) and Richard Neal (D-MA) have introduced the “Affordable Housing Credit Improvement Act of 2017,” designed to strengthen the Low Income Housing Tax Credit program to serve the country’s most vulnerable families.
“The Tiberi-Neal bill increases the availability of housing credits for developments serving homeless and extremely low income households,” Diane Yentel, president and CEO of The National Low Income Housing Coalition (NLIHC), said in a statement. “Moreover, the bill provides states and communities with flexibility to develop and preserve mixed-income developments that would allow even deeper levels of affordability while maintaining financial feasibility.”
According to NLIHC’s report, “The Gap: Affordable Housing Gap Analysis 2017,” there is a shortage of 7.4 million affordable and available apartments for America’s 11.4 million extremely low-income households. These families include seniors, people with disabilities and families with children.
In addition to enacting the reforms included in the Affordable Housing Credit Improvement Act, Yentel said her group encourages Congress to expand this resource – as proposed in the Senate companion bill introduced by Sens. Maria Cantwell (D-WA) and Orrin Hatch (R-UT) – and to reject President Donald Trump’s budget, which would cut funding for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) by $6 billion.
“Congress must use every tool available to address the growing affordable housing challenges impacting the lowest income households in every state and community in the country,” Yentel said. “Passage of the Affordable Housing Credit Improvement Act of 2017 is an important step towards ensuring the creation and preservation of available and affordable housing for the lowest income households.”
