Seattle, New York mayors ask feds to expand low-income housing tax credit
Jul 1, 2016, 4:41 PM | Updated: 5:07 pm
Mayor Ed Murray (AP)
(AP)
Seattle Mayor Ed Murray and New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio are asking Congress to expand the federal low-income housing tax credit by 50 percent.
Murray and de Blasio sent a letter to Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-UT, and Sen. Ron Wyden, D-OR, the chair and ranking member of Senate Finance Committee to push for the passage of the Affordable Housing Credit Improvement Act. Senator Maria Cantwell, D-WA was one of the lawmakers to first introduce the legislation. Twenty-two other mayors from around the country support the letter, according to Murray’s office.
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“The low-income housing tax credit has created 18,000 affordable homes in Seattle over the years and is a key element of our Housing Affordability and Livability Agenda, which aims to assist the tens of thousands of Seattleites who spend half their income or more on housing,” Murray said in a news release.
The act would contribute about 8,850 homes to Murray’s goal of creating 20,000 affordable housing units over the next decade.
Mayor Murray declared a state of emergency in Seattle last November, seeking more state and federal assistance to address homelessness in the city.
“As we push to build and preserve 200,000 affordable homes in New York City in just 10 years, I applaud Senators Schumer, Cantwell and Hatch for their commitment to expanding the tax credit and also moving to make it more flexible – and so help millions of Americans, including low-income New Yorkers, live in safe, healthy, and affordable homes,” de Blasio said.
The Low-Income Housing Tax Credit has financed almost 3 million homes across the U.S., according to Murray’s office. If passed, the new legislation would finance another 400,000 units of affordable housing nationwide over the next decade.
