Congress Considers Overdue Preservation Agenda

This NHLP Housing Law Bulletin article is from March 2008. In order to address the increasing shortage of affordable housing, Congress must enact stronger legislative policies to preserve hundreds of thousands of units of existing privately owned federally assisted affordable housing. Because the current policy framework allows many owners to convert to market-rate and the costs of acquisition and rehabilitation are substantial, major changes to existing budget and policy decisions are needed. The National Preservation Working Group has developed a package of legislative proposals that would address many of the obstacles to preserving affordable housing. These proposals are being considered by both the House and the Senate as their housing leadership drafts a comprehensive preservation bill to be introduced in Congress later this year.