Midterm Elections Impact on Affordable Housing Programs
Now is the Time to Urge All of New Jersey’s Members of the House of Representatives to Sign on to the Affordable Housing Credit Improvement Act
Enterprise Community reports that “Midterm Elections are Likely to Impact Affordable Housing and Community Development Programs.”
Funding for U.S. Dept. of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) housing programs are currently operating under the continuing resolution (CR) through Friday, December 7, 2018. Considerable uncertainty remains as Congress seeks to reach full-year funding agreements for a number of federal agencies.
With the midterm elections less than a month away, a resolution to the funding negotiations is likely to occur in the lame duck session, and the tone of those negotiations will be heavily dependent on the outcome of the midterms. Enterprise urges Congress to finalize full-year funding agreements as soon as possible to give critical affordable housing and community development programs certainty in their operations going forward.
House and Senate leadership have also suggested that tax legislation may advance in the lame-duck session, presenting an opportunity to advance provisions from the Affordable Housing Credit Improvement Act (S. 548/H.R. 1661), bipartisan legislation to strengthen the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (Housing Credit), legislation that would permanently extend NMTC. Similar to funding negotiations for appropriated programs, a potential tax package in the lame-duck will be depend, in large part, on the outcome of the midterm elections.
Advocacy leading into the lame-duck negotiations is critical, and Enterprise urges all Housing Credit stakeholders to ask your representatives who have not yet signed on to support the Affordable Housing Credit Improvement Act to do so now.
Over one-third of the House has signed on to support the Affordable Housing Credit Improvement Act (H.R. 1661.) This bipartisan legislation would make significant strides towards addressing our nation’s severe shortage of affordable rental housing by strengthening the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (Housing Credit).
These NJ U.S. Representatives co-sponsored the legislation earlier this year.
- Donald Norcross (D-NJ-1),
- Chris Smith (R-Nj-4)
- Albio Sires (NJ-D-8)
- Bill Pascrell (D-NJ-9), and
- Bonnie Watson Coleman (NJ-D-12)
Are you a constituent in of these NJ members of U.S. Representatives?
- Frank LoBiondo (NJ-R-2),
- Tom MacArthur (NJ-R-3),
- Josh Gottheimer (NJ-D-5),
- Frank Pallone (D-NJ-6),
- Leonard Lance (NJ-R-7),
- Donald Payne, Jr. (NJ-D-10), or
- Rodney Frelinghuysen (NJ-R-11)
If yes, please contact your U.S. Representative today and urge him or her to sign on to H.R. 1661 as a co-sponsor. Click here to contact your Representative.
Tell your U.S. Representative that we need to strengthen the Housing Credit to help solve New Jersey’s affordable housing crisis.The Housing Credit has a tremendous impact in New Jersey. The ACTION Campaign lays out this impact in a recently updated New Jersey fact sheet.
