Frank Says Preservation Legislation Will Be High Priority in 2009

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U.S. Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA), chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, said on 10/28/08 that legislation to preserve existing federally assisted and subsidized affordable rental housing units will a top priority for his panel in the next, 111th Congress.

Frank made his comments in Boston at the National Housing & Rehabilitation Association’s 2008 Fall Forum conference.

Frank said: “…Any owner of subsidized affordable property who would like to keep those units in the [affordable housing] inventory will get full cooperation from the law. We’ll do exit tax relief. We’ll do whatever it takes. Because if you’re trying to keep an inventory of affordable housing, preserving what we have makes so much more sense than letting that out of the inventory and starting from scratch….The highest priority we will have in the housing area…will be the preservation of the existing units.”

In addition to addressing the preservation issue, Frank indicated to his audience that his committee, if he is still its chairman in the next Congress, will work with the House Ways and Means Committee on the low-income housing tax credit (LIHTC) “to create a set of programs that will enhance your ability” to provide affordable rental housing. Frank acknowledged the affordable housing industry’s current difficulty in attracting equity investment for new tax credit projects.

Financial Services Committee staff have already drafted a preservation bill, which Frank is expected to introduce early next year. Frank and Ways and Means Chairman Charles Rangel (D-NY) were each re-elected November 4th to another term, and are expected to continue as chairs of their respective committees when the new Congress convenes in January.

Frank and Rangel this year crafted and helped enact numerous amendments to federal tax and housing laws to improve the housing credit program and make it work better with other federal housing programs.

In his remarks, Frank stressed that affordable rental housing and opportunities for Americans to buy a home are both equally important and necessary.

Committee Priorities

Financial Services Committee Deputy Chief Counsel Gail Laster indicated that passage of a preservation bill will be Chairman Frank’s top priority in the housing area in the next Congress, in comments 11/13/08 at a Washington, DC conference sponsored by Ballard Spahr Andrews & Ingersoll, LLP.

Laster also expected the committee next year to again move bills to amend the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Section 202 and 811 programs, and to reform HUD’s Section 8 voucher program. Separate bills to enhance the Section 8, 202, and 811 programs (H.R. 1851, H.R. 2930, H.R. 5772) have been passed in this Congress by the full U.S. House of Representatives but not by the Senate. The Section 202 and 811 programs finance supportive rental housing for the elderly and disabled individuals.

Laster also expected Frank to continue to collaborate and coordinate with Rangel on whatever steps might be deemed necessary to bolster an LIHTC program she said is “suffering” right now.