We urge Congress to increase affordable rental housing production by expanding and strengthening the Housing Credit. We encourage enactment of the proposals included in the Affordable Housing Credit Improvement Act (AHCIA), comprehensive, bipartisan legislation to expand and strengthen the Housing Credit. We especially urge immediate enactment of the Housing Credit production proposals in the AHCIA with the greatest impact:

• Extending and expanding upon the temporary 12.5 percent allocation increase that has now expired,
• Lowering the bond financing threshold test, and
• Enacting basis boosts to enable the Housing Credit to better serve hard-to-reach populations and communities.

We encourage the Internal Revenue Service to continue to provide Housing Credit regulatory flexibilities that improve our ability to finance, develop and operate affordable housing. In addition to flexibilities that may be needed to address continued barriers and challenges brought on by the COVID-19 crisis and rising costs, we encourage the IRS to enact any AHCIA policy proposals that are within the IRS’ purview, and address other issues as they arise.

We urge the Biden Administration to protect Housing Credit investment through Community Reinvestment Act reforms, Pillar 2 rules implementing a global minimum tax, or any other regulations that may directly or indirectly impact the Housing Credit. CRA motivates the vast majority of investment in the Housing Credit – an estimated 73 percent – meaning any changes to CRA could significantly impact our ability to build and preserve affordable housing.