Homeownership Fair| Section 8 Housing | Affordable Housing

As our national economic hardship persists and housing costs continue to soar in Los Angeles County, many individuals have an increasingly difficult time finding an affordable place to live. I will continue to work for affordable housing for all Americans so that everyone may enjoy the American dream.

Annual Homeownership Fair

Each year, my office, in conjunction with the City of Glendale and the Fannie Mae Foundation, hosts a homeownership fair to bring together local experts to answer questions about buying and owning a home. The fair features experts and information booths for first-time home buyers and current homeowners to learn how to qualify for a loan, how and when to refinance a home, what price home they can afford, how their credit report affects their ability to buy, and how to fix up their newly purchased home.

To read more about the Homeownership Fair, please click here.

Fully Funding Section 8 Housing

While more than 1 million families nationwide receive Section 8 vouchers, there are 11 million low-income people who spend more than 50% of their income on rent or live in substandard housing. Currently, the average wait for those seeking Section 8 Housing is approximately two years and can be up to ten years in larger cities. In Glendale alone, there are over 12,000 seniors and families on the waiting list for Section 8 vouchers.

Section 8 rental assistance allows low-income families to enter the private housing market and choose safe, decent and affordable places to live, helping them to escape from the cycle of poverty. Unfortunately, the program is severely under-funded and the President's budget request for this year did not allow for new vouchers.

In 2003, I testified before the House Appropriations Subcommittee on VA, HUD, and Independent Agencies to request increased federal funding for Section 8 housing. President Bush's 2004 budget request only funded 96% of Section 8 Housing Voucher renewal requests, with no funding for new vouchers despite the growing need.

To read more about Rep. Schiff’s efforts to fully fund Section 8 housing, please click here.

Affordable Housing

Renewing the Dream Tax Credit Act
I am a proud cosponsor of H.R. 839, the Renewing the Dream Tax Credit Act. This bill would provide income tax credits for individuals purchasing homes in certain areas, such as areas of chronic economic distress, rural areas, Indian reservations, and in census tracts where the median gross income does not exceed 80% of the greater area median gross income.

Improving the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit Program
I also supported H.R. 3324 (107th) to clarify the eligibility of expenses for the low-income housing tax credit program. This clarification is necessary to ensure that the affordable housing community and investors continue to use this important tax credit for affordable apartment construction and rehabilitation.

Enabling Californians to Obtain Home-Ownership Loans
The challenges faced by first-time homebuyers, such as financing a mortgage, are intimidating, and I have cosponsored H.R. 951 (107th), the Housing Credit and Bond Modernization and Fairness Act to help. This bill would enable 4,000 additional low-income, first-time homebuyers in California to obtain a loan and purchase a home by making changes to two federal affordable housing programs - the Mortgage Revenue Bond (MRB) program, and the Low Income Housing Tax Credit.

Working to Simplify Mortgage Cancellation Requirements
H.R. 13 (107th), the Mortgage Cancellation Relief Act, would eliminate a requirement that sellers pay tax on forgiven debts. This tax relief bill would correct what many real estate and financial experts consider a harsh and unwarranted penalty in the tax code against homeowners who are down on their luck because of illness or job loss by providing a tax-free exemption for any amount a mortgage lender forgives on a principal home sale, provided the sale proceeds are insufficient to pay off the loan balance. It was for this reason that I cosponsored this piece of legislation. I authored a similar bill in the California State Senate.

Supporting Affordable Housing Measures
In our search to provide affordable housing for everyone, H.R. 425, the Housing Preservation Matching Grant in the 107th Congress, was a project-based assistance program that provided Federal matching grants giving states incentives to either continue or create innovative programs to preserve affordable housing. The bill provided assistance to States for operating costs, capital expenditures, acquisition, and preservation of projects with HUD-insured mortgages, Section 8 contracts, and resident ownerships.

I also cosponsored H.R. 2349(107th), the National Affordable Housing Trust Fund Act,which authorized a portion of the Federal Housing Authority's profits to create a trust fund from which states and non-profits could draw to build affordable housing rental units in mixed-income locations, to construct affordable homes for low to middle income citizens, and to provide rental subsidies to low-income individual.

Supporting Multifamily Housing
In Los Angeles, the land cost increased by an average of 25% over the past 9 years. It costs more to construct or rehabilitate moderate cost housing units than the current mortgage limits, but Federal Housing Authority (FHA) loan limits were never intended to exclude certain regions of the country. This is why I believe we must adjust the loan limits for high-cost areas such as LA and why I cosponsored H.R. 1629 (107th), the FHA Multifamily Housing Mortgage Loan Limit Adjustment Act. This bill would provide another tool in the effort to produce much-needed affordable rental housing, particularly in high-cost areas, for working families. H.R. 1629 would raise, by 25%, the existing FHA multifamily loan limits for the first time since 1992.