We haven’t been this close to major investments in affordable housing in a generation.
The Senate and House are entering what may be final negotiations on the Build Back Better Act, an infrastructure and economic recovery package. As members of Congress in Illinois identify their funding priorities, it’s very important that they hear from constituents that affordable housing funding should be preserved—especially as the overall size of the $3.5 trillion proposal becomes subject to reductions.
Urge your members of Congress to support key affordable housing priorities for rental housing and homeownership, including:
- Creating and preserving affordable rental homes for people with the lowest incomes by providing $90 billion in rental assistance for 1 million households; $80 billion to preserve public housing for 2 million residents; and $37 billion for the national Housing Trust Fund, creating 330,000 affordable rental homes.
- Closing the racial wealth gap with $10 billion in down payment assistance for first generation homebuyers, targeted to people who have been historically left out of a key means of building household and intergenerational wealth.
- Providing incentives for community investment and equity through $4.5 billion for local governments to eliminate exclusionary zoning policies.
- Establishing a Neighborhood Homes Tax Credit targeted to affordable homes for sale in communities where the cost of building or rehabilitating is greater than what people in the neighborhood can afford.