As the premier organization representing all sectors of the affordable housing community, NHC often is called upon by Congress and the Administration to not only testify, but to also organize in-depth discussions on issues on the legislative agenda.

In order to respond quickly and effectively to challenges facing the housing community, NHC establishes issue-specific task forces and work groups that allow people from all sides to work together on solutions. Task forces and work groups form quickly in response to priority issues and are open to NHC member partners, as well as those who are not part of the membership.

For more information, please contact Rosalyn Crain at (202) 466-2121 x225 or rcrain@nhc.org

With a change of leadership in Congress and a presidential election coming up in 2008, NHC believes the time is right to introduce new and innovative housing policy proposals that can raise the visibility of affordable housing, expand its constituency, and lay the groundwork for the adoption of new policies to expand the availability of homes for working families.

To begin work on this unique project, NHC has established four subcommittees to focus on following sets of housing policy issues:

• Housing’s connection to energy, the environment and transportation—This subcommittee will develop policies that expand the constituency for affordable homes by linking housing issues to other public policy issues of concern to voters. These issues include the cluster of concerns related to energy use (high utility costs, concerns with dependence on foreign oil, global warming, etc.), traffic congestion, sprawl, and other quality of life and environmental concerns.
  
  
• Federal government’s role in housing finance, including FHA—This subcommittee will examine strategies for reinvigorating the federal government’s involvement in housing finance in ways that add to and complement the core competencies of the private sector and other governmental and quasi-governmental entities. The focus will be on FHA reform and housing affordability for working families.
  
  
• Federal government’s role in incentivizing housing solutions at the state and local levels—This Subcommittee will focus on how the federal government could better support the development of effective state and local housing strategies. Examples of this federal role might include: funding rigorous research demonstrations to evaluate ‘what works,’ providing information and technical assistance to state and local governments on how to craft a successful housing strategy, making it easier to combine different federal funding streams for affordable homes, and using new federal funding strategically to leverage additional resources and provide the right incentives for needed local action.
  
  
• Tax opportunities and issues—This Subcommittee will take a cross-cutting look at how the tax code could be used more effectively to expand the availability of homes for working families. In addition to considering the various tax proposals that emerge from the other Subcommittees, this Subcommittee will look specifically at proposals for increasing the effectiveness of the low-income housing tax credit and for adopting a new Single-Family Affordable Tax Credit.
  

The members of this task force, including for-profit and nonprofit housing providers and community leaders examine issues associated with older assisted properties. The task force focuses on innovative approaches to recapitalize these properties and resources available to address their physical needs. The task force also explores methods for preserving this housing stock.

Members of this work group include syndicators, lenders, developers and other industry members. The work group focuses on exit tax issues and the related legislation. The work group prepared a memo that presents its position on the exit tax issues.

The purpose of this work group is to develop ideas for ways in which employer assisted housing (EAH) can be incentivized at the federal level through federal legislation. Its members include employers, EAH practitioners and housing industry leaders on the issue.