Rancho Cucamonga, CA – National CORE today hailed new legislation that would create a federal tax framework for preserving America’s aging affordable housing while encouraging long-term private investment in rehabilitation.
U.S. Rep. Mike Carey, D-Ohio, introduced the Housing Opportunities and Preservation (HOPE) Act on July 2 to address the urgent for funding streams that will help preserve and rehabilitate existing affordable rental housing.
The legislation comes as the National Low Income Housing Coalition estimates the nation faces a shortage of 7.2 million affordable and available rental homes for extremely low-income households. The average federally assisted rental home is 36 years old; nearly 375,000 of these homes are expected to lose their affordability protections in the next five years.
“The HOPE Act would unlock a major new private funding source for preserving our aging housing stock,” National CORE President Mike Ruane said. “It’s an innovative approach to one of the stickiest challenges in affordable housing – how to preserve the nation’s aging affordable housing for future generations.”
Across the country, nonprofit housing providers, preservation advocates, policy experts and public officials have increasingly recognized that preserving existing affordable housing must be part of any comprehensive strategy to address the nation’s housing crisis.
Over the past year, National CORE has helped lead collaborative discussions with the Novogradac & Company and a broad coalition of affordable housing organizations exploring innovative approaches to support long-term preservation.
That coalition includes organizations representing nonprofit housing developers, preservation advocates and affordable housing finance experts, all committed to strengthening the tools available to preserve affordable homes for future generations.
Preserving existing affordable housing is often more cost-effective than replacing it and helps protect residents from displacement while maintaining stable communities. Yet despite broad recognition of its importance, preservation has historically lacked dedicated federal tools that match the scale of the need.
The HOPE Act would change that.
The legislation encourages private investment by creating a new federal tax framework for qualified affordable housing preservation projects, including incentives that reward long-term investment in rehabilitation while preserving affordability.
Eligible properties must be owned by a qualified nonprofit, public housing agency, state or local government, or tribal housing agency. They also must be at least 15 years old, undergo substantial rehabilitation and remain affordable to low-income families for at least 20 years.
“While Congress’ permanent expansion of the low-income housing tax credit last year is historic and critical for affordable rental housing, especially for new construction, the nation’s need for preservation outstrips these expanded resources,” said Michael Novogradac, managing partner of Novogradac & Company. “This bill provides nonprofit owners of rental housing a flexible financing tool targeted to individual investors to address the growing national need to preserve the nation’s affordable rental housing stock in a way that would complement, not replace or substitute, the historic housing credit expansion.”
The legislation now heads to the House Ways and Means Committee, where Carey serves as a member.
“We need to preserve existing homes so low-income seniors, working families and people with disabilities can continue to remain in high quality apartments and not be displaced,” POAH President and CEO Aaron Gornstein said. “The HOPE Act will expand private sector investment so that more affordable homes can be renovated by non-profit organizations who commit to long-term affordability requirements.”
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