Maine Sen. Angus King has cosponsored a bill that would boost availability of low-income housing tax credits.
The Affordable Housing Credit Improvement Act would increase the amount of financing available by 50%. It would also help states more easily provide tax credits to private developers by lowering the amount states need to contribute to a project to get the maximum amount of credits from 50% to 25%. Those credits are used to acquire, rehab or build housing for low-income residents.
Those provisions and others will particularly help rural Maine, King says, by making more funding available for projects overall.
"There is no single solution to this housing issue. The underlying problem, however, is a lack of supply, which increases the price. And the one law Congress can't repeal is the law of supply and demand," King says.
A version of the bill has been introduced periodically since 2016, according to the Affordable Housing Tax Credit Coalition, an advocacy group that promotes affordable housing built with the tax credits. It has gathered dozens of bipartisan sponsors since being introduced in May.
King says the bill is urgent as Maine continues to face a housing shortage. The state is short of an estimated 20,000 housing units. He expects Maine could see the benefits within the next year or two as projects get approved.
