President Biden’s Infrastructure Proposal
This week, President Biden unveiled his American Jobs Plan, a draft $2.25 trillion infrastructure proposal which includes several investments in housing. The proposal includes committing $213 billion to produce, preserve, and retrofit more than a million affordable, resilient, accessible, energy efficient, and electrified housing units. It also includes targeted tax credits, formula funding, grants, and project-based rental assistance to extend affordable housing rental opportunities to underserved communities nationwide. This includes:
- Build, preserve or retrofit more than 2 million affordable, accessible, energy-efficient and resilient homes with an investment of $213 billion through targeted tax credits, formula funding, grants and project-based rental assistance;
- Enact the Neighborhood Homes Investment Act to build and rehabilitate more than 500,000 homes for low- and middle-income homebuyers ($20 billion);
- Eliminate exclusionary zoning and harmful land use policies, and provide competitive grants to jurisdictions that take concrete steps to eliminate such needless barriers to producing affordable housing;
- Provide $40 billion to revitalize public housing through capital improvements;
- Provide funding for energy efficient upgrades in homes through block grants programs, the Weatherization Assistance Program, and home and commercial efficiency tax credits, as well as a $27 billion clean energy fund. These investments have a particular focus on disadvantaged communities that have not yet benefited from clean energy investment; and
- Provide $100 billion for broadband infrastructure with the goal of bringing affordable, reliable, high-speed broadband to every American.
Responding to President Biden’s proposal, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said Republicans will not support the bill due to its tax provisions. Lacking the required 60 votes to move the bill in the Senate, Democrats may have to use the budget reconciliation process again in order to pass the bill with a 50 plus one majority (mirroring the process used to pass the most recent COVID relief bill). In the House, Democrats also have a slim majority and can only afford to lose 3 votes. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi stated this week that she would like the proposal to be drafted and on voted on prior to the July 4th holiday.
To view the White House Fact Sheet on the American Jobs Plan, click here.
House Subcommittee Examines Public Housing During COVID-19 Pandemic
The House Financial Services Subcommittee on Housing, Community Development and Insurance recently held a hearing titled Preserving a Lifeline: Examining Public Housing in a Pandemic. The hearing focused on how affordable housing needs are growing, including the Public Housing Capital Fund backlog, the need for additional waivers and flexibilities from HUD, expanding the Housing Choice Voucher and the need for more physical affordable housing units and potential zoning changes. Witnesses included Michael Hendrix, the Director of State and Local Policy for the Manhattan Institute and Tamir Ali Mohamud, a public housing resident and member of the Minneapolis High-Rise Representative Council, who spoke about finding a safe home in public housing as a Somalian refugee. Executive Director of Akron Metropolitan Housing Authority, Brian Gage, described his agency’s efforts to support residents during the pandemic and advocated for additional HUD waivers and flexibilities. Similarly, PHA Executive Director, Oscar Duran of the Municipal Housing Agency of Council Bluffs, supported many of the same points and defended the essential role of public housing within the network of affordable housing programs. Georgi Banna, Director of Policy and Program Development for NAHRO, spoke of the need for Congress to address the $70 billion Public Housing Capital Fund backlog. House Financial Services Committee Chairwoman Maxine Waters (D-CA) and Subcommittee Ranking Member Steve Stiver (R-OH) also provided statements in recognition of the growing affordable housing needs in the United States due to the pandemic.
To view the full House Financial Services Subcommittee Hearing on Examining Public Housing in a Pandemic, click here.