Election-Year Uncertainty Slowing Affordable Housing's Progress, Advocates Say

Although affordable housing has gained a previously unheard-of amount of visibility at the federal level over the last few years, the realities of Washington, D.C., are tossing cold water on activists’ hopes for quicker change.  

The increased attention has not yet translated into action on the bold changes to the funding, creation and preservation of affordable housing nationwide that the sector needs. And with a looming election taking up all the air in most rooms, the wait is likely to stretch even longer.

Earlier this year, affordable housing advocates felt hopeful about the Tax Relief for American Families and Workers Act of 2024, which contained some important tweaks to the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit program that could result in the creation of 200,000 homes across the country. 

But that bill, approved by the House with broad bipartisan support in April, has been “dying on the vine in the Senate” because of election-year politics, Affordable Housing Tax Credit Coalition CEO Emily Cadik said on Bisnow’s National Affordable Housing Finance webinar Wednesday.

With months to go before the election and a whiplash-inducing onslaught of candidate news, affordable housing has once again slipped down the priority list on Capitol Hill.

Uncertainty about who will even be in charge moving forward is on the minds of many in the industry, which relies heavily on federal funding for below-market-rate housing projects as well as efforts to preserve and improve existing older affordable properties. 

The Biden administration put forth several big ideas that could have impacted the space, including a plan to cap rent increases in LIHTC-financed units. However, with the election ahead, and with Biden now out of the running, those plans hang in the balance. 

“The best we can do is just position affordable housing as well as we can and be ready for any political eventuality,” Cadik said.   

Some panelists spoke about the growing interest and urgency of seeking funding sources beyond the traditional pool, such as the LIHTC. 

Bridge Housing’s Kenneth Lombard was encouraged by the capital markets’ “willingness to step up and provide us with alternative means of capital.” Growing interest from pension funds and foreign investors alike has buoyed him, Lombard said. 

Many agree that the affordable housing crisis is so pervasive it has become an important and urgent issue even in states where it may not have been on senators’ radar years ago. Even with the slow pace at the federal level, that sobering turn has made some hopeful that housing will be a priority for more members of Congress now.

“The need for housing is at a higher level of visibility, politically and generally, within this country than I have seen it. And I have been watching for 25 years, working in this business,” U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Deputy Assistant Secretary for Multifamily Ethan Handelman said.

In May, legislators in the House launched a bipartisan housing caucus, with members from Mississippi, Colorado, California and Kansas. It followed the creation of a renters caucus the year prior. Real estate lobbies representing both renters and property owners have ramped up their attention to Capitol Hill. 

“People are seeing every day that the lack of housing options – the lack of affordability, the lack of availability – is holding all sorts of other things back,” Handelman said.