Affordable housing champions in Congress introduced the Affordable Housing Credit Improvement Act (AHCIA) of 2023 to strengthen and expand the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (Housing Credit). The bipartisan legislation is sponsored by Senators Maria Cantwell (D-WA), Todd Young (R-IN), Ron Wyden (D-OR), and Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), and Representatives Darin LaHood (R-IL-16), Suzan DelBene (D-WA-01), Brad Wenstrup (R-OH-02), Don Beyer (D-VA-08), Claudia Tenney (R-NY-24), and Jimmy Panetta (D-CA-19). The House bill has over 60 bipartisan original cosponsors, including the leads.
Last Congress, the Affordable Housing Credit Improvement Act had 207 bipartisan cosponsors in the House of Representatives and 43 in the Senate, nearly a majority of each chamber. This includes nine Texas U.S. Representatives – Vicente Gonzalez (D-15), Henry Cuellar (D-28), Lizzie Fletcher (D-7), Colin Allred (D-32), Pete Sessions (R-17), Lance Gooden (R-5), Roger Williams (R-25), Tony Gonzales (R-23), and Veronica Escobar (D-16).
The AHCIA remains a top priority for TAAHP and its Federal Legislative Advocacy Group will be working to quickly rebuild co-sponsorship for the legislation. We urge all TAAHP members to remain involved in our AHCIA advocacy efforts until this critical legislation is passed.
The bill would support the financing of nearly 2 million new affordable homes by:
- Increasing the amount of credits allocated to each state. The legislation would increase the number of credits available to states by 50 percent for the next two years and make the temporary 12.5 percent increase secured in 2018 permanent—which has already helped build more than 59,000 additional affordable housing units nationwide.
- Increasing the number of affordable housing projects that can be built using private activity bonds. This provision would stabilize financing for workforce housing projects built using private activity bonds by decreasing the amount of private activity bonds needed to secure Housing Credit funding. As a result, projects would have to carry less debt, and more projects would be eligible to receive funding.
- Improving the Housing Credit program to better serve at-risk and underserved communities. The legislation would also make improvements to the program to better serve veterans, victims of domestic violence, formerly homeless students, Native American communities, and rural Americans.