NLIHC

When I reflect on the tremendous challenges facing low income people throughout the country, I am reminded of a story from last summer when a family swimming at the beach was caught in a strong riptide, swept away from the shore by powerful ocean currents. A few brave individuals attempted to save them, only to be pulled into danger themselves as horrified bystanders watched. There was no rescue equipment nearby and no lifeguards on duty. PRESS CONTACT Renee Willis Vice President for Field & Communications (202) 662-1530 x247 media@nlihc.org

The emergency relief bill, passed by the House today, is an important step in providing communities devastated by this year’s hurricanes and wildfires with the critical resources they need to continue to rebuild and recover.

The final tax bill passed by the Senate yesterday and the House today fails to expand housing resources for people with the lowest incomes, but instead provides massive tax cuts to wealthy individuals and corporations, increases the national debt by at least $1 trillion over a decade, and threatens vital safety net programs like Medicaid, Medicare, and those for affordable housing and homelessness prevention.

While the preservation of Low Income Housing Tax Credits and Private Activity Bonds avoids an immediate devastating impact on affordable housing, this bill will exacerbate our country’s already yawning income inequality and will harm efforts to end homelessness and housing poverty. An estimated 64% of the bill’s benefits go to the top 1% of earners, at a cost to the country of over $1 trillion.

The House Financial Services Committee will vote next week on a bill – introduced by Congressman French Hill (R-AR) – that includes a provision to hold hostage the national Housing Trust Fund, a program that helps America’s lowest income seniors, people with disabilities, families with children, and veterans afford to keep a roof over their heads, until Congress passes legislation to reform Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. While NLIHC looks forward to working with Congress to enact bipartisan housing finance reform legislation that ensures housing access and affordability for American families, it strongly opposes using critically needed housing resources for struggling families as a bargaining chip

Senate Republicans approved a tax plan today that, if enacted, would harm millions of the lowest income seniors, people with disabilities, families with children, veterans, and other at-risk populations in need of federal investments to help them afford a roof over their heads. With this vote, Republicans in Congress are one step closer to providing massive, unpaid-for tax cuts for the rich and powerful, draining resources needed for other critical investments, including affordable housing.

According to the Congressional Budget Office, the Republican tax bill would trigger the “Statutory Pay-As-You-Go Act” of 2010. This Act was designed to limit increases to the national debt by forcing automatic cuts to critical programs, including those that help low income families meet their basic needs. If enacted, the Republican tax bill would trigger automatic cuts to the national Housing Trust Fund (HTF), a program that makes rental homes affordable for people with the greatest and most acute housing needs.

Comprehensive tax reform offers a once-in-a-generation opportunity to address one of the biggest barriers to economic success for families struggling to get by: the lack of decent, accessible and affordable homes for the lowest income people. Nationally, there are just 35 homes affordable and available to every 100 of the lowest income families. Due to chronic underfunding of critical affordable housing programs, just one in four low income households in need receives any assistance.

The tax reform legislation proposed by House Republican leaders takes a historic step in directly revising the mortgage interest deduction (MID), a $70 billion annual tax expenditure that primarily benefits higher income households—including the top 1% of earners in the country. The Republican tax proposal makes sensible reforms in lowering the amount of a mortgage against which the MID can be claimed to $500,000 for new home loans and doubling the standard deduction. This change to the MID would impact fewer than 6% of mortgages nationwide and would save an estimated $95.5 billion over the first decade

The National Low Income Housing Coalition (NLIHC) and the Institute on Assets and Social Policy (IASP) at Brandeis University’s Heller School released today a report, “Misdirected Investments: How the Mortgage Interest Deduction Drives Inequality and the Racial Wealth Gap.” The report shows that while African Americans and Hispanics each account for 13% of the nation’s households, they receive only 6% and 7% of the tax benefits from the mortgage interest deduction (MID). White households receive nearly 78% of the deduction’s benefits.

Hundreds of local and national organizations signed onto four National Low Income Housing Coalition (NLIHC)-led Hurricane Housing Recovery Coalition letters urging the White House and Congress to provide immediate relief to the people of Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands and to ensure that federal housing recovery and rebuilding efforts are complete and equitable for all individuals and communities impacted by the devastation of Hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria

The tax reform plan proposed by Republican leaders in Congress and the White House overlooks one of the best and most immediate ways to spur economic growth and help everyday Americans who have been left behind: reprioritizing and rebalancing federal housing policy.

New data released today in the National Housing Preservation Database (NHPD) shows that nearly 500,000 federally-assisted apartments or rental homes will reach the end of their current subsidy contracts and affordability restrictions for low-income families in the next five years. Nearly one in four of these units are funded by Low Income Housing Tax Credits (LIHTC).

The “Rent Relief Act of 2017,” legislation announced today by U.S. Representative Joe Crowley (D-NY), would provide much-needed resources directly to struggling families and individuals to help them afford to keep a roof over their heads. The refundable tax credit would put more money in the pockets of the lowest income families, at a time when their wages have flatlined and housing costs have skyrocketed.

Like most of you, I am stunned, saddened and outraged — by the terrible acts of hatred and intolerance displayed in Charlottesville this weekend, and by the president's shameful response

The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) published on August 9 its Worst Case Housing Needs: 2017 Report to Congress, showing that 8.3 million unassisted very low income households in America spend more than half of their income on their housing, live in severely substandard housing, or both. The number of households experiencing this “worst case housing” has increased by 41% since 2007 and by 66% since 2001. We are experiencing an affordable housing crisis of unprecedented proportions.

Thousands of advocates, organizations, and elected officials in more than 30 cities across the country will join the Our Homes, Our Voices National Housing Week of Action, July 22 to 29, led by the Campaign for Housing and Community Development Funding (CHCDF), to call for increased federal investments in affordable housing and community development.

The National Low Income Housing Coalition (NLIHC), together with state, local, and national partners, is leading a national week of action called Our Homes, Our Voices across the country calling for increased federal investments in affordable housing and community development. The coordinated series of events and activities, from July 22 to July 29, will take place in more than 20 cities.

The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) published the official amounts of national Housing Trust Fund (HTF) funding to states for 2017 in the Federal Register today, June 23. This year, HUD will allocate over $219 million to provide housing for extremely low income (ELI) households, those with incomes at or below 30% of the area median income, or at or less than the federal poverty guideline.

The National Low Income Housing Coalition (NLIHC) applauds the release of Fiscal Year (FY) 2017 allocations of state-by-state funding levels for the national Housing Trust Fund (HTF) from the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). The funding, approved on Wednesday, June 14, is an important step towards alleviating the severe shortage of homes affordable to the lowest income people across the country