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Cosponsors Bill to Modernize Low-Income Housing Tax Credit to Ease Affordable Housing Crisis
WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-Miss.), chair of the Senate Transportation, Housing and Urban Development Appropriations Subcommittee, recently threw her support behind legislation to expand and strengthen a federal tax credit that has helped Mississippi build more affordable housing.
Hyde-Smith is among the 29 original cosponsors of the Affordable Housing Credit Improvement Act (S.1515), which would expand the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit, the nation’s most successful tool for encouraging private investment in affordable housing, to help build almost 1.6 million new affordable homes over the next decade. U.S. Senator Todd Young (R-Ind.) introduced this bipartisan measure.
“Modernizing the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit will help us better use available resources to increase access to affordable housing and work toward ensuring supply keeps up with demand. In Mississippi, we’ve seen firsthand how these tax credits strengthen rural communities, and spur economic and workforce development,” Hyde-Smith said.
Since its creation in 1986, the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit has built or restored more than 4 million affordable housing units nationally, accounting for nearly 90 percent of all federally-funded affordable housing during that time. Roughly nine million American households have benefitted from the credit, and the economic activity it generated has supported 6.6 million jobs and spurred more than $746 billion in wages.
In Mississippi alone, housing credit has already developed or preserved more than 57,000 homes, generating almost $9.0 billion in wages and business income and $2.895 billion in tax revenue for the state, according to The ACTION Campaign.
The Affordable Housing Credit Improvement Act would:
- Increase the number of credits available to states by 50 percent for the next two years and make permanent the temporary 12.5 percent increase secured in 2018 that has already helped build more than 59,000 additional affordable housing units nationwide.
- Qualify more projects with less debt holdings by decreasing the amount of private activity bonds needed to secure Housing Credit Funding, which would stabilize financing for workforce housing projects built using private activity bonds.
- Improve the housing credit program to better serve veterans, victims of domestic violence, formerly homeless students, Native American communities, and rural Americans.
Currently, nearly one-in-four renters – over 11 million families – spend more than half of their household income on rent, leaving little for essentials like child care, medication, groceries, and transportation.
The ACTION Campaign and the Affordable Housing Tax Credit Coalition endorsed the Senate legislation, which has been referred to the Senate Finance Committee for consideration.
U.S. Representative Darin LaHood (R-Ill.) introduced a House companion measure (HR.2725).
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