Senator Cantwell Proposes LIHTC Expansion

Senator Cantwell (D-WA) recently announced her plan to introduce legislation to significantly expand the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit. Her announcement, which took place at the Patrick Place Housing Credit development in Seattle, is the first of many events to promote the Housing Credit as the best tool to address the affordable housing crisis. “We’re here today to launch a national campaign to say that we need to increase the amount of tax credits so more affordable housing units can be built in the United States of America,” Senator Cantwell said in a statement. “We know this is a big challenge, but the housing crisis is a big challenge.”

She proposes to increase Housing Credit allocation authority by 50 percent, which would finance the development or preservation of approximately 400,000 additional units of affordable housing nationwide over the next 10 years.

Her proposal also contains other changes to make the Housing Credit more streamlined and flexible, including allowing income averaging in Housing Credit properties to enable the program to reach households with a broader range of income levels, and providing states more flexibility in financing developments that target homeless individuals or extremely low-income families.