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HUD and the Department of Justice (DOJ) recently announced the nationwide rollout of an initiative aimed at increasing awareness and reporting of sexual harassment in housing. The announcement includes an interagency task force between the HUD and the DOJ to combat sexual harassment in housing, an outreach toolkit, and a public awareness campaign.
The Eviction Lab at Princeton University recently released the first national database of court eviction records in the United States. The Eviction Lab is a team of researchers, students, and website architects who believe that a stable, affordable home is central to human flourishing and economic mobility. It’s led by Matthew Desmond, the author of the Pulitzer-prize winning book, Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City, which raised awareness about evictions with the public and policy-makers nationwide.
The A Call To Invest in Our Neighborhoods (ACTION) Campaign is a national, grassroots coalition of over 2,100 national, state, and local organizations and businesses calling on Congress to protect, expand, and strengthen the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit. Its most immediate focus is the omnibus Fiscal Year (FY) 2018 spending legislation currently being negotiated in Congress, which must pass by March 23. This deadline was put in place Feb. 9, when a brief government shutdown ended.
The IRS recently issued Revenue Procedure 2018-18, which includes updated low-income housing tax credit (LIHTC) and private activity bond (PAB) state cap numbers based on a chained consumer-price index introduced by tax legislation that passed in December.
A report recently released by the University of Bristol, U.K., and the Nature Conservancy entitled, “Estimates of Present and Future Flood Risk in the Conterminous United States,” concludes that FEMA’s flood hazard maps account for only one-third of the total population that is exposed to serious flooding.
According to media reports, the White House is expected to release President Trump’s infrastructure proposal soon. The proposal includes guiding principles for a $1.5 trillion infrastructure package. During President Trump’s State of the Union address, he called on streamlining the permitting process and added that the proposal will also include details for rebuilding initiatives in rural regions.
A recent op-ed by The New York Times editorial board highlighted the significant threats to affordable housing production following the adoption of last year’s tax reform legislation. The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act reduced the top corporate tax rate from 35 to 21 percent, which has reduced pricing and subsequent production for the LIHTC, the nation’s primary tool for developing new affordable housing.
Back in November, both Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac announced they are now re-entering the Low Income Housing Tax Credit market, the federal program that encourages investment of equity into affordable rental housing. Following this news, Fannie Mae recently announced it will invest $100 million to help Hurricane Harvey-impacted areas and underserved markets with a low-income housing tax credit fund that will focus on supporting affordable multifamily housing.
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