Happy July. I hope everyone had a safe, relaxing and fun-filled July 4th holiday. I was fortunate to spend some over the holiday with a few of our LIHTC supporters and felt energized by their optimism that housing will have its day this year. I hope you were able to touch base with some of your Representatives while they were home.
Now that Congress has returned to Washington after their two-week July 4th work period, there are a few issues if importance they need to work on. The most significant of these is the FY 2024 budget which I addressed in last months update. None of the dynamics have changed since then and a stalemate is still foreseeable, but we will see how discussions proceed this month. We are counseling folks to plan on a government shutdown of some length in October.
We are pleased with the strong bipartisan, bicameral support for the AHCIA. As of July 10th the House bill (HR.3238) has 124 cosponsors evenly divided between Republicans and Democrats and the Senate bill (S.1557) has 22 cosponsors also evenly divided between the parties. This is significant progress as we work toward a bipartisan majority (218) of the House which will help us position provisions of the AHCIA for inclusion in a tax vehicle sometime this year.
We need your help to continue the strong momentum and garner as much support as possible. Counting the Democrats in the queue waiting to be added to the cosponsor list, there are 29 members of the CA delegation supporting the AHCIA. This is a little more than half of the 52-member delegation, so much work remains to increase the numbers. Of the 12 Republican members, Reps. LaMalfa, Kim, Valadao, Kiley, & Calvert have signed on. There is a queue of Democrats in the House waiting to get on the bill, but we need companion Republican’s to join them so please assist us by advocating with the remaining nine Republican representatives to sign onto the AHCIA.
Meetings on the Hill have been very positive and AHCIA supporters of both parties are determined to pass a tax bill this year which would include some of the provisions of the AHCIA. We recently met with Senators Cantwell, King (I-ME) and Warner (D-VA), all of whom expressed their desire and efforts to get housing provisions addressed this year. In addition, in meetings with President Biden’s economic team, White House staff expressed a commitment to push for affordable housing provisions should a tax vehicle present itself this year.
Another issue of importance to the industry is the increased difficulty in securing affordable property, casualty, and liability insurance. This has been an issue confronting our industry for some time but the recent disclosure that insurers Allstate and State Farm announced they were withdrawing from major markets significantly raised the status of insurance availability to a national issue. The industry has come together to work on this critical issue, engaging industry trade associations and insurance practitioners around the country to coalescing around a strategy to address insurance costs and availability. Thom Amdur of Lincoln Avenue Capital has authored an excellent White Paper which spells out the issues in detail. The National Leased Housing Association and National Multi-Housing Council are in the process of gathering data on insurance rates and coverage to support our efforts with Congress and the Administration.
We have also commenced our advocacy on the issue with meetings we arranged at the White House with the Council of Economic Advisors and National Economic Council staff as well as on Capitol Hill to brief congressional leaders. Each meeting was met with a commitment to work with the industry on the issue and to consider potential solutions.
As you can see there is much going on and we look to CHC to be full partners in these efforts. We so appreciate all that you do to expand affordable housing resources and advocate.
Have a great summer.
David Gasson