“This pandemic has hit landlords hard too, and (I) wanted to make sure that both parties could benefit from affordable housing. I hope this legislation paves the way for a new standard in the Illinois housing industry when passed, ”she added.
Under the proposed bill, contractors would be eligible for a state tax credit if they agreed to allocate at least 20 percent of the units in a property for low-income renters in areas of low affordability or at least 15 percent of the units in an apartment building over a 10-year period inhabited by households with low or extremely low incomes.
According to advocacy group Housing Action Illinois, the bill would provide $ 35 million annually in federal tax credits that are currently “on the table” and is expected to result in affordable housing investments of over $ 875 million and an additional 3,500 affordable housing units per year.
Bob Palmer, Political Director of Housing Action Illinois, said the new bill, if passed, would be “the most important” housing bill passed by the General Assembly in recent years.
“The lack of affordable housing is a long-standing problem and we won’t solve it tomorrow, but we actually need cheaper rental housing to meet supply in the scarcity,” said Palmer.
According to the National Low Income Housing Coalition, Illinois is experiencing a shortage of approximately 268,000 housing units for renters at or below the poverty line, and there are only 39 available units per 100 “extremely low income” renters who earn less than 50 percent of their area median income .