The Affordable Housing Credit Improvement Act (AHCIA) was just reintroduced in the U.S. House with more bipartisan support than ever before—more than doubling the support we started with in the prior Congress. Its 119 original cosponsors represent over one-fourth of the House and nearly 40 states, including members of leadership and two-thirds of the House Ways and Means Committee Republicans. Even representation among the lead sponsors—Reps. Darin LaHood, Suzan DelBene, Claudia Tenney, Don Beyer, Randy Feenstra, and Jimmy Panetta—ranges from rural Iowa to Seattle.
These 119 original cosponsors all signed on in less than two weeks. To get more than one-fourth of the House on a 27-provision bill so quickly shows how strong our advocacy power is—and how critically affordable housing is needed.
But how do we turn this support into real action on affordable housing this year? The last time Congress acted to meaningfully increase affordable housing supply was in 2020, when they set the minimum 4% low-income housing tax credit rate and enabled the development of more than 120,000 affordable homes than would have otherwise been possible. We all know the story of the gridlock that followed, and how sweeping legislation that included housing credit provisions fell apart at the final hour.
But a new Congress brings new opportunities. The House and Senate are getting to work on “one, beautiful bill” to address expiring tax cuts and a number of other Republican priorities, and it’s up to us to build momentum for including housing credit provisions. Though the housing credit is incredibly popular, there are trillions of dollars’ worth of competing tax priorities on the table for consideration in a tax bill.
Soon the Senate version of the AHCIA will be reintroduced, and we are working now to build another compelling list of original cosponsors. We also need to activate all of our Republican supporters in the House and Senate over the coming weeks to prioritize the housing credit in reconciliation, and we need them to communicate that to Republican leadership.
Though affordable housing has been thrown a number of curveballs in recent months, we need to remain focused on a real chance to take long overdue action on the affordable housing crisis. There are over 12 million renters who are severely cost burdened in this country, and the AHCIA would finance nearly 1.6 million more homes than otherwise possible. According to analysis we released in 2024, each of these homes can save households an average of over $7,800 per year compared with market—savings that can amount to the equivalent of a minimum wage job for half of the year.
It can be tempting to drown out the noise coming out of D.C. right now and avoid policy entirely. But if we lose our energy to advocate, we’d be doing a disservice to the bipartisan support we’ve spent years building and, most importantly, to the people whose lives would be transformed by having a home they can afford. Each groundbreaking, ribbon cutting, congressional meeting, email, and phone call matters. Each new cosponsor we get helps make the decision a bit easier for the next one.
It’s up to all of us to leave everything on the field right now and get a win for affordable housing across the finish line.
