Steven Horsford Warns Of ‘Unconscionable Level Of Scarcity’ In Affordable Housing

2 months ago

On Tuesday, Rep. Steven Horsford (D-NV) questioned Treasury of the Secretary Janet Yellen on housing affordability during a House Financial Services Committee hearing.

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Transcript

00:00Heels back, but I think it is very important that we address this situation. I appreciate you're you're working with us

00:05I appreciate the secretary's work on it as well. Well that we go to the gentleman from Nevada. Mr. Horsford is recognized for five minutes

00:12Thank you very much. Mr. Chairman and to the ranking member

00:15Madam secretary good to see you again

00:18Housing remains the number one issue in my district

00:22That I hear from my constituents

00:24But that should be no surprise as nevada is currently bearing the brunt of this country's affordable housing crisis

00:32Supply or rather a key lack of supply remains the driver behind our affordability emergency

00:39Which has left southern nevada with only 13 affordable and available rental units for every 100 low-income household

00:48this is an unconscionable level of scarcity and

00:52Incentivizing construction is the only feasible path forward

00:56It is going to take strong public private partnerships as well as coordination with housing developers

01:02To spur the investment necessary to make housing affordable for everyone

01:07To do so we must work with the tools available to us to leverage

01:11Our tax code and make increased construction of these projects feasible across the country

01:17Under your purview is the low-income housing tax credit one of the most powerful incentives that we have

01:24To provide the necessary support for the development of affordable housing

01:28However, i've heard from my local developers that this effective credit can be more efficient

01:35Which will expand the population that it can serve

01:38There are necessary improvements that the program

01:41Could achieve which are included in my legislation the housing market transparency act

01:47The bill would create a central repository for state housing agencies to provide critical information on housing developments

01:54Such as the construction costs quality of living spaces health and safety information and ownership data

02:01the public private partnerships

02:03Of litech program that make it such an effective method of bringing affordable units to a community

02:10Also create inherent issues with transparency

02:15So madam secretary, how could treasury and the irs make?

02:19litech

02:21More efficient if you were able to capture comprehensive data on these properties

02:26And additionally what other improvements to the litech program?

02:29Do you recommend to help further incentivize the badly needed construction of more affordable developments?

02:37well treasury certainly

02:39supports efforts to improve transparency

02:43and accountability that

02:46are consistent with legal requirements

02:49and

02:50We're very happy to review the bill

02:54that

02:55you

02:56Have introduced and try to provide technical assistance

03:01We could work

03:02with the irs

03:04on

03:05administration of litech and see

03:08If there are interactions there that would be favorable

03:12Completely agree about we have a real crisis with respect to affordable housing. I would say

03:20generally

03:22Treasury is trying to think of how it can use every single tool at our disposal

03:30to improve

03:31supply of affordable housing

03:33I was in minneapolis a few weeks ago and was able to announce that we're using

03:41a hundred million dollars

03:43that is

03:44income from

03:46our investments

03:48In the cdfis to plow it back into affordable housing and of course with respect to litech

03:56But you know the president's budget

03:59proposes

04:00increased funding of litech which

04:04Would be very important the president proposed a program that would expand

04:10Affordable housing by two million units and love to see that become law

04:16I I agree with the need to build more housing to address the affordable housing crisis

04:21Madam secretary. I also wanted to note

04:25the incredible success

04:27from the direct file

04:29program

04:30And I am pleased that treasury recently announced that you will be making this direct file permanent

04:37Nevada had the fifth best uptake of the program

04:42of any state in the country

04:44notably

04:4690 of the respondents rated that the program was excellent or above average

04:52so I believe that we need to continue to

04:55promote the direct file program

04:58And expand and permanently reauthorize it so that nevadans

05:02Will be able to have that support all year to learn about their options to direct file and to earn

05:09The tax credits and benefits that they deserve especially as we have debates about who should get the tax

05:16Benefits, it should be the working people of america not big corporations or billionaires with that I yield back

Steven Horsford Warns Of ‘Unconscionable Level Of Scarcity’ In Affordable Housing

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