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Shortly after Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV) stated his objections to the most recent iteration of the Build Back Better Act, reports surfaced of new plans for a more limited bill that would exclude hard-fought housing investments. This is despite repeated and sustained advocacy by fair housing and other local housing advocates who know first-hand how rampant housing discrimination, a historic affordable housing crisis, and deepening racial homeownership and wealth gaps continue to harm families and local economies. Our nation is in dire need of resources to meaningfully take on these challenges, and Congressional leadership cannot abandon efforts to fund fair housing enforcement, First-Generation Down Payment Assistance, and the Neighborhood Homes Investment Act.
Tell your Representatives and Senators to have the courage to continue fighting for all of the Build Back Better Act’s housing investments, especially:
$800 Million for Local Fair Housing Enforcement
$700 million for the Fair Housing Initiatives Program (FHIP) to ensure that grassroots private fair housing enforcement organizations can better address ongoing and emerging forms of housing and lending discrimination in the housing market.
$100 million for the Fair Housing Assistance Program (FHAP) to ensure that local and state civil and human rights agencies can better assist HUD with handling filed complaints of housing discrimination.
$10 Billion for Targeted First-Generation Down Payment Assistance (DPA)
$10 billion for first-generation down payment assistance to homebuyers, modeled after a proposal from NFHA and the Center for Responsible Lending which aims to take initial steps to close the racial homeownership and wealth gaps. This provision will enable over 170,000 Black and Latino consumers to become new homebuyers.
$5 Billion for New Construction and Property Rehabilitation
Nearly $5 billion for the Neighborhood Homes Investment Act (NHIA), which would create a tax credit to close the gap between development costs and sale prices for properties in need of rehabilitation in distressed neighborhoods and make affordable homes available to owner-occupants, resulting in the building or renovating of 125,000 affordable homes.