Today, the White House released President Biden’s budget request for Fiscal Year (FY) 2022, totaling $6 trillion, a 16 percent increase from the FY21 enacted levels. The Budget proposes creating a new type of Housing Credit authority, termed “Opportunity Housing Credit Dollar Amounts” (OHCDA). OHCDAs would have a separate credit ceiling from traditional Housing Credits, set at 118 percent of the aggregate amount of traditional Housing Credit volume cap each year for five years—2022 through 2026. The Budget does not include an increase in traditional Housing Credit volume cap.
Details regarding the President’s tax priorities —and how it will pay for its spending — are outlined in the Treasury’s Green Book, which is the first to be released in five years. This specifies that the majority of funds in the President’s budget would target OHCDAs, defined as those that are entirely in one or more difficult development areas (DDAs) or that have low poverty or other considerations, as determined by the Secretary of the Treasury in consultation with HUD. In addition, the proposal provides a permanent basis boost of up to 50 percent for Housing Credit properties in DDAs. Learn more on pages 24 and 25 of the Green Book here.
ACTION commends the Biden Administration for its commitment to affordable housing through the expansion of the Housing Credit, which continues to garner bipartisan support in Congress. Yesterday, 10 new Senate cosponsors signed onto the Affordable Housing Credit Improvement Act (AHCIA) of 2021 (S. 1136), and now 25 percent of Senate Finance Committee members are signed on. In the House, 21 Representatives have also signed on, 15 of whom are members of the Ways and Means Committee.
There is strong, growing momentum among members of Congress and the White House to strengthen and expand the Housing Credit, and ACTION will continue its advocacy to ensure the passage of the AHCIA.
