As a new Trump administration and a Republican-controlled Congress get ready to take office next year, affordable housing advocates are exploring their next steps.
They say there’s an opportunity to pass key legislation as the housing crisis becomes a kitchen-table issue across the country.
Overall, there’s more bipartisan support for affordable housing than there was eight years ago when the first Trump administration took office, said Emily Cadik, CEO of the Affordable Housing Tax Credit Coalition, at the recent AHF Live conference in Chicago.
Moderating the Capitol Hill Update panel, Cadik and other leaders discussed how affordable housing and the low-income housing tax credit (LIHTC) could fit into the plans of a new White House and Congress.
“Let’s set the mood for the room and just say, ‘Make Affordable Housing Great Again,” said David Gasson, a partner at MG Housing Strategies. “That’s what our mission is. … We’re going to do everything we can to get the Trump administration excited about addressing the housing crisis. The best place to start is with affordable housing.”
LIHTC supporters have been seeking to restore a 12.5% cap increase and further boost housing credit allocations, lower the bond financing threshold from 50% to 25% to receive the full amount of 4% housing credits, and make other improvements to the federal program.
“From my perspective, I feel confident that with the momentum that we’ve built, the folks who are in charge now in the House and the Senate, and the convincing that I think we can do with the Trump administration that we will get something done on LIHTC,” Gasson said.
While there is strong bipartisan support for the Affordable Housing Credit Improvement Act (S. 1557 and H.R. 3238), which calls for boosting the LIHTC program, about 50 cosponsors are not returning to the next Congress because of retirements and recent election losses, noted Cadik.
“There’s a constant need for new education, getting all of our current supporters back on if they’re coming back and cultivating new ones,” she said.
While supporters are looking ahead to next year, they are also exploring opportunities for Congress to take action in the remaining months of a lame-duck session as legislators work on providing disaster relief to the areas that were recently hit by hurricanes Helene and Milton.
Advocates will push to include LIHTC expansion measures in a disaster bill, but it will likely be a long shot, Gasson said.
Beyond the LIHTC program, the Neighborhood Homes Investment Act (S. 675 and H.R. 3940) will get strong consideration in the future, added Shannon Ross, vice president of policy at the Housing Partnership Network.
This legislation seeks to create a new tax credit to attract private investment for building and rehabilitating owner-occupied homes. “It follows the LIHTC playbook in a lot of ways,” Ross said. “It’s a bipartisan bill and is very intentionally bipartisan, which makes it more durable.”
There will also be urgency around extending the New Markets Tax Credit, which is set to expire next year, noted Ross.
HUD Budget Pressures
At the time of the session, the federal government is funded through Dec. 20, so action needs to be taken on a budget, Ross said.
Affordable housing supporters are also keeping a close eye on what happens with the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) after the first Trump administration proposed severe cuts to the agency.
Gasson noted that Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) is in line to be chair of the powerful Senate Appropriations Committee.
“She’s a passionate advocate for housing and understands the significance, but there’s going to be a lot of downward pressure on the appropriations process because of what they are going to do on the tax bill,” he said. “They’re going to have to try to trim money out of the budget.”
As a result, advocacy on the appropriations side will be critical.
About 82% of the HUD budget is the Section 8 program, noted Sharon Wilson Géno, president of the National Multifamily Housing Council. “LIHTC and the Section 8 program have a symbiotic relationship,” she said.
In addition, there will be a lot of pressure on the other 18% of the HUD budget, Wilson Géno said.
Preservation Efforts
A growing issue for many affordable housing organizations is preserving their aging portfolios.
Mercy Housing owns more than 25,000 affordable housing units, with the average age of its properties just over 30 years, said Ismael Guerrero, president and CEO of the nonprofit.
Beyond the nonprofit’s portfolio, the overall median age of the nation’s rental stock has grown to 44 years.
Nearly 4 million rental units were lost through 2022, including 500,000 between 2019 and 2022, according to Guerrero.
“If we don’t have a strong preservation program and focus, we’re going to keep adding units while losing units on the back end,” he said.
The AHCIA proposal to reduce the bond financing threshold could help with preservation efforts.
Another idea that has been floated is to exempt recapitalization projects from the private-activity bond cap, according to Guerrero.
Deportations and Rent Control
The panelists also discussed other significant issues that could emerge in the near future, including deportation and rent control.
“If the rhetoric on deportations actually happens, that’s going to be incredibly traumatic for our communities and disruptive potentially to us,” Guerrero said. “We have to worry about our mixed-status households. We have to think about those on staff and our residents and what might happen there and what we are expected to do if that comes to pass.”
Proposals calling for work requirements and time limits on housing benefits have also been floated.Wilson Géno and others cited the importance of state and local measures.
“We’ve been very busy particularly on rent stabilization and rent control measures,” Wilson Géno said. “The rent control referendum in California was defeated pretty handily. Most of the local ones were also defeated, but a handful did go through.”
