The Affordable Housing Credit Improvement Act of 2019 would strengthen a pillar of federal housing support.
A bipartisan group of Senate and House legislators have proposed a sweeping bill to help solve the affordable housing issue, joining many of the Democratic presidential nominees in making housing a larger issue on the national stage, and showing the nationwide nature of the housing shortage.
TheAffordable Housing Credit Improvement Act of 2019 seeks to close the gap in affordable rental units across the nation. It would do so by expanding and strengthening the Affordable Housing Tax Credit, also known as the Low Income Housing Tax Credit, a pillar of federal housing policy. If passed, the bill expects to create 1.9 million additional affordable units over the next decade. According to the National Low-Income Housing Coalition, there’s a national shortage of seven million affordable and available rental homes.
Created 30 years ago, the Affordable Housing Tax Credit offers developers generous tax breaks if new development will include affordable units (defined charging rent that’s roughly 30 percent of total income, based on area median income). It has been used to construct more than 3.2 million housing units, leveraging more than $190 billion in private investment.
