[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 145 (1999), Part 1]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page 310]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



     INTRODUCTION OF THE AFFORDABLE HOUSING OPPORTUNITY ACT OF 1999

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. NANCY L. JOHNSON

                             of connecticut

                    in the house of representatives

                       Wednesday, January 6, 1999

  Mrs. JOHNSON of Connecticut. Mr. Speaker, today I am introducing 
legislation to increase the cap on state authority to allocate Low 
Income Housing Tax Credits to $1.75 per capita and index the cap to 
inflation. The current cap of $1.25 per capita has not been adjusted 
since the program was created in 1986. Since that time, population 
growth has totaled about 5 percent.
  Although building costs rise each year, as does the affordable 
housing needs of the nation, the federal government's most important 
and successful housing program is in effect being cut annually as a 
result of inflation. Since 1986, inflation has eroded the Housing 
Credit's purchasing power by nearly 50 percent, as measured by the 
Consumer Price Index. This cap is strangling state capacity to meet 
pressing low income housing needs.
  Last year, I sponsored legislation with Representative Lewis (D-GA) 
proposing this same increase in the Housing Credit cap and indexing it 
for inflation. Representatives Ensign (R-NV) and Rangel (D-NY) also 
sponsored legislation to accomplish the same increase. Nearly 70 
percent of the Ways and Means Committee and a total of 299 of our 
fellow House Members cosponsored one or both of these bills last year. 
Unfortunately, the Congress did not pass a Housing Credit increase 
because the Omnibus Appropriation bill eventually enacted was not large 
enough to accommodate it.
  The Housing Credit is the primary federal-state tool for producing 
affordable rental housing all across the country. Since it was 
established, state agencies have allocated over $3 billion in Housing 
Credits to help finance nearly one million homes for low income 
families, including 70,000 apartments in 1997. In my own state of 
Connecticut, the Credit is responsible for helping finance over 7,000 
apartments for low income families, including 650 apartments in 1997.
  Despite the success of the Housing Credit in meeting affordable 
rental housing needs, the apartments it helps finance can barely keep 
pace with the nearly 100,000 low cost apartments which were demolished, 
abandoned, or converted to market rate use each year. Demand for 
Housing Credits currently outstrips supply by more than three to one 
nationwide. Increasing the cap as I propose would allow states to 
finance approximately 27,000 more critically-needed low income 
apartments each year using the Housing Credit, helping to meet this 
growing need.
  A broad, bipartisan consensus exists for raising the Housing Credit 
cap, just as in 1993, when Congress made the Credit permanent. The 
Administration, the nation's governors and mayors, and virtually all 
major housing groups also support this increase.
  I urge my colleagues to join me in a bipartisan effort to provide 
this long overdue increase in the Housing Credit cap.

                          ____________________