HousingWireHousingWire
A bill that has been introduced multiple times to the Illinois Legislature since 2020 is poised for a new revival as the state continues to seek ways to address its shortage of affordable housing stock, according to reporting by Northern Public Radio.
The Build Illinois Homes Tax Credit Act, first introduced in 2020, would offer a state tax credit for housing developers that construct affordable homes within the state. With a price tag of roughly $20 million per year, advocates say that financial risk to the state’s treasury is mitigated by not paying credits until a development has been completed.
The original version of the bill was introduced in 2020 by then-State Rep. Delia Ramirez (D). Ramirez has since left the state House to become a federal member of the House of Representatives, serving Illinois’ 3rd Congressional District that encompasses parts of Cook and DuPage counties.
In light of Ramirez’s election to the U.S. House, the bill is now being spearheaded by state Reps. Dagmara Avelar (D) and Ryan Spain (R).
“The rising cost of housing is squeezing families across our communities, and too often, new affordable developments just aren’t keeping pace with demand,” Avelar said in a recent statement about the bill. “By incentivizing new construction, we can expand housing options, bring down costs, and give families a real shot at homeownership.”
In an interview with Northern Public Radio, Avelar explained that a key impediment to passing the bill in previous sessions often came down to budget constraints and other priorities that consumed lawmakers’ more immediate attention. But since the bill could produce jobs while incentivizing private investments into Illinois, she thinks that lawmakers could take more notice this time.
Avelar also described the current version of the bill as “scaled down” compared to previous efforts. It is estimated to spur the development of at least 1,000 additional affordable homes for qualifying state residents.
An affordable housing lobbying group, the Illinois Housing Council, assisted Avelar with the bill’s composition. Its executive director, Allison Clements, said the legislation is modeled by the federal Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) program. While the LIHTC program is seen as beneficial, it is much larger in scale and has a national focus. A state-based complement could ensure that certain projects not addressed by the federal program could be covered in Illinois, she said.
“[The LIHTC] is the most important resource we have available to build and preserve affordable housing throughout the state and country,” Clements told the outlet. “But that resource always needs additional gap funding to make developments really cross the finish line. So, we have gotten behind this model that has already been implemented in over 25 other states around the country and has proven to be a successful tool to build and preserve affordable housing.”
Spain’s involvement in the bill’s sponsorship adds bipartisan support from the state assembly’s minority leadership. Spain serves as deputy minority leader in the chamber’s Republican conference, and he said that the bill can both help businesses while addressing the state’s housing shortage.
“We need to make sure that we’re providing opportunities to make the development of housing more successful, and it’s been slow in Illinois for many years now in terms of new housing starts,” Spain said. “And so, we’ve got to do something to change the calculation for developers and for families so that we can bring more housing solutions forward.”
Previous versions of the bill had Republican support, but they never got a floor vote, Spain said. His support is strong despite the fact that the state is running a projected deficit of $3 billion. The need for housing, he says, still makes addressing shortages a core priority.
“We have a lack of affordable housing to the tune of over 300,000 units,” he said. “And we need to make some investment and indicate our priorities so that this can be corrected. And if we do it well, we can facilitate population growth in Illinois that would greatly improve our current fiscal situation.”
