Legislation aims to create affordable housing

Bipartisan support for the Neighborhood Home Investment Act heightens optimism

There have been scant positive elements to the housing industry in the past year – what with rising rates and a lack of affordability. But mulled legislation designed to mitigate the latter dynamic has yielded optimism for the coming year.

The Neighborhood Homes Investment Act – co-sponsored by US Rep. Mike Kelly (R-PA) and Rep. Brian Higgins (D-NY) – is designed to expand the supply of affordable, single-family homes. The bipartisan support of the legislation – at a time when bipartisanship is a scarcity given heighted political polarization – has further raised the hopes of those helping to solve the housing affordability crisis.

Among the most notable proponents of the legislation is the National Community Stabilization Trust (NCST), which works to increase homeownership by expanding the supply of affordable, single-family homes to stabilize neighborhoods, build community wealth and advance racial equity. For more than a decade, the non-profit has been an intermediary for responsible, locally based buyers and developers purchasing and rehabilitating homes to create affordable homeownership opportunities.

NCST president voices his support of the Neighborhood Homes Investment Act

Mortgage Professional America reached out to Chris Tyson, president of the National Community Stabilization Trust, to learn more about the legislation and its potential impact on the current housing affordability crisis in the US.

Across America, he said, there is a glut of vacant homes ripe for rehabilitation that could be transformed into affordable housing. “We all know parts of town where we have blighted homes,” he told MPA during a telephone interview. “We pass those and wonder why nobody is doing anything.” 

The legislation could help develop 500,000 new homes in the next decade through the creation of a new federal tax credit. Consequently, it would restore vacant land to productive use, create thousands of construction jobs, lift the assets of all homeowners in the community and expand the tax base for local governments, he noted.