LIHTC Advocacy Letter Garners 2,000 Signees

A group of 2,000 organizations and businesses signed a letter urging Congress and the Trump administration to prioritize the LIHTC program during tax reform deliberations. The letter, submitted on behalf of the ACTION Campaign, highlights the accomplishments of the program and why it’s still needed.

The letter states that the LIHTC program is responsible for nearly all of the affordable housing built and preserved in recent decades and is the most successful tool for encouraging private investment in the production and preservation of affordable rental housing. The LIHTC has financed nearly 3 million apartments since 1986, which have provided roughly 6.7 million low-income families, seniors, veterans, and people with disabilities homes they can afford. It has provided affordable housing to all 50 states and all types of communities, including urban, suburban, and rural. And more than 1 million of these apartments were financed using tax-exempt multifamily Housing Bonds. 

The letter also highlighted the program’s impacts on local economies. It has generated $310 billion in local income and $122 billion in tax revenues, and has supported approximately 3.25 million jobs over the past 30 years. According to the National Association of Home Builders, the development of every 1,000 rental apartments supports approximately 1,130 jobs, making the development of affordable housing an important component of our economic growth. 

The letter calls upon the new administration and the 115th Congress to see the LIHTC and tax-exempt bonds as positive examples of using the tax code to improve communities and to maintain the viability of LIHTC and housing bonds under tax reform. The letter also encourages the enactment of the Affordable Housing Credit Improvement Act introduced by Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch and Senator Maria Cantwell in 2016. The act would increase the housing credit authority by 50 percent.