NLIHC's Crowley Testifies for Affordable Housing Fund

WASHINGTON, DC-National Low Income Housing Coalition president Sheila Crowley testified yesterday before the House Financial Services Committee to urge Congress to create the proposed Affordable Housing Fund. The fund would produce or preserve homes affordable to extremely low- and very low-income households, with extremely low-income households defined as incomes at or below 30% of the area median. The fund is part of the proposed HR 1427, the Federal Housing Finance Reform Act of 2007.

Under this bill, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac would be required to contribute to the fund revenue equal to 1.2 basis points for each dollar of their average total mortgage portfolios for the preceding year. In the first year, the money would go to Gulf Coast states, which are still struggling with housing problems after the 2005 hurricanes.

Crowley noted that the fund is not an entirely new concept. It “is the conceptual cousin of the highly successful Affordable Housing Program of the Federal Home Loan Banks, through which 10% of their profits must go into a grant program to support affordable housing activities,” she told the committee.