WASHINGTON—The nomination hearing for Steve Mnuchin as President-elect Trump’s Treasury Secretary demonstrated bipartisan attention to housing issues as part of the extensive portfolio of the Treasury Department. The National Housing Conference is pleased to see the nominee and senators from both sides of the aisle addressing the pain and loss from foreclosures, the need for affordable housing and the financing that sustains it.
The Treasury Department touches housing in many ways beyond the response to the foreclosure crisis. The Low Income Housing Tax Credit, which Treasury oversees, is the primary means for financing creation and preservation of affordable rental housing, responsible for nearly three million apartments since 1986. Other housing and community development tax programs, such as the New Markets Tax Credit, fall within Treasury’s purview as well. As a financial regulator, Treasury plays a key role in assuring a stable, liquid mortgage finance system, and it will play a key role in the housing finance reform still needed in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis.
“The housing community looks to the Treasury Secretary as a key leader shaping the finance of homeownership and rental housing alike,” said Chris Estes, president and CEO. “NHC has spent a lot of time working with our diverse membership on principles for housing finance reform in particular. We are pleased that Mr. Mnuchin is committed to a bipartisan housing finance reform, and we look forward to working with the new appointee and his team as they work to address America’s housing challenges.”
Treasury can lead federal efforts to ensure that our mortgage system serves all people and all places in America. The discussion at today’s hearing shows that the nominee and members of Congress from both parties share our commitment to see all in America have equal opportunity to live in a quality, affordable home in a thriving community.
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About NHC: Everyone in America should have equal opportunity to live in a quality, affordable home in a thriving community. The National Housing Conference educates decision makers and the public about housing policies and practices to move housing forward together. NHC convenes and collaborates with our diverse membership and the broader housing and community development sectors to advance our policy, research and communications initiatives to effect positive change at the federal, state and local levels. Founded in 1931, we are a nonpartisan, 501(c)3 nonprofit organization. NHC’s research team operated as the Center for Housing Policy until the organizations merged in 2013.
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Contact:
Andrea Nesby
202.466.2121 ext. 240
anesby@nhc.org