RALEIGH – Congressman Wiley Nickel (NC-13) has introduced the Keep Housing Affordable Act to bolster the Low Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) Program and incentivize developers to maintain the affordability of housing units for extended periods.
“We’re in the middle of a housing crisis in North Carolina. The Keep Housing Affordable Act is a crucial solution that incentivizes developers to maintain the affordability of homes for a long time to come,” said Congressman Wiley Nickel. “Doing so will help boost the affordable housing supply, enhance home quality, and create long-term stability for working families across North Carolina’s 13th District.”
According to the National Low Income Housing Coalition, there are only 66 affordable and available rental units per 100 households at or below the 50% Area Median Income threshold in North Carolina. Statewide, that means that there are 185,186 fewer affordable homes available than are needed to affordably house working families.
The Low Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) Program awards developers federal tax credits to offset construction costs in exchange for reserving a set number of units in their properties as affordable housing for thirty years. Unfortunately, according to the National Low Income Housing Coalition, nearly 500,000 LIHTC-financed units, representing almost a quarter of all such units in place, will reach the end of their 30-year affordability period by the end of this decade. This leaves landlords to convert their affordable units and charge market rents, exacerbating the affordable housing crisis and potentially subjecting hundreds of thousands of low-income renters to eviction if they cannot pay market rents.
The Keep Housing Affordable Act would seek to remedy this problem by establishing an optional 50-year affordability period. Under this proposal, a sponsor could elect at the time of application for credits to maintain affordability for 50 years. In return, the sponsor could access credits after 15 years without reducing the Private Activity Bonds (PAB) volume cap. This future cap-free access to credits would encourage developers to opt into 50 years of affordability by assuring them of resources for recapitalization that might otherwise not be available.
The affordability period would reset if the sponsor uses PABs after 15 years. At that time, sponsors could either commit to 50 years of subsequent affordability, again with access to credits 15 years after that or commit to 30 years of subsequent affordability without access to more credits without superseding the previous 50-year affordability commitment.
So many ways to reduce housing prices:
Secure the border.
Reduce legislation that hinders business growth.
It’s time to stop using tax dollars to fill the pockets of investors.
Housing went through the roof because of the “covid relief” dollars that got printed and drove the national debt through the roof. Want to fix housing prices and make them more affordable? PAY THE DEBT BACK!
This message is brought to you by the Wiley Nickel Free Publicity Committee.
Strange since under Joe the cost of housing has skyrocketed. Strange, it’s almost as if Dems don’t want joes policies? I wonder why he is their nominee….. for now.
This is cause by his party. Continue to eliminate the Middle Class. Time to Free Wiley.
This is caused by people moving from up north and California to here. Not to mention your insurance commissioner keeps raising the cost so everyone is raising housing cost to cover the taxes and the insurance And let’s not forget trump dropping the interest rate to 0%. Someone had to pay the bill for that
Our plan is to fix the problem we caused by printing more money by printing more money
How about doing something about the invaders moving here?
I saw today that the average price for a home in the US is 400,000.00. I appreciate the efforts of the Congressman but, passing legislation will have little effect as long as our inflation continues to be high and interest rates are high, Bidenomics at its best.