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Housing Secretary Marcia Fudge, who was selected by President Biden as the second Black woman to serve as secretary of Housing and Urban Development at the height of the pandemic, has resigned from her position and will resign on March 22.
News of Fudge’s resignation came on Monday, the same day the Biden administration unveiled a $7.3 billion budget proposal that would provide $258 billion to expand access to affordable housing.
But the budget proposal, which would fund tax credits for first-time homebuyers and several other housing initiatives announced by Biden in his State of the Union address last week, is just a starting point for discussion because Congress must approve it.
fudge told USA Todaywho broke the news of her resignation, said affordable housing should be a focus for both Democrats and Republicans, but the Department of Housing and Urban Development needs more funding.
She said $70 billion is needed to improve public housing and multifamily housing, but Congress has only provided $3 billion. Fudge said permanent funding for disaster recovery is another unmet need.
Marcia Fudge
“We’re making incremental changes, but we need to make bigger changes, and we need to make them faster,” Fudge told CNN USA Today. “We’re doing the best we can with the resources we have.”
The White House said Deputy Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Adelina Todman will serve as acting secretary until President Biden nominates Fudge’s successor.
“Under Marcia’s transformative leadership, we have worked hard to lower the cost of housing and increase supply,” Biden said in a statement. statement. “We have proposed the largest investment in affordable housing in American history. We have taken steps to ensure fairer housing assessments and stepped up plans to correct the negative impacts of redlining and aggressively combat racial discrimination in housing.”
In his State of the Union address on Thursday, Biden called on Congress to approve a $10,000 tax credit for first-time homebuyers and people selling new homes, and Funding Build and renovate more than 2 million homes.
Biden Made a case The White House provided the budget proposal Monday at a campaign stop in Goffstown, New Hampshire. cost details His housing initiatives include:
- by creating a Neighborhood Home Tax Credit It will cost US$19 billion over 10 years.
- supply down payment assistance Set aside $10 billion for an estimated 400,000 homebuyers for an assistance program for first-time homebuyers whose parents do not own a home and whose income is at or below 120% of area median income (140% in high-cost areas).
- supply $20 billion in competitive grants Allows state and local jurisdictions to encourage the construction of multifamily residential developments, including commercial improvements and projects located near transportation and other community amenities.
- Provide $37 billion to build or preserve 1.2 million units of affordable housing Expand Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC), lowering private activity bond financing requirements to 25% and repealing qualified contract provisions and right of first refusal provisions that have allowed some landlords to waive affordable rent requirements.
- Provide a one-time investment of US$7.5 billion to meet the financial needs of more than 100,000 people Distressed public housing properties Nationwide.
- Attract development capital to build new affordable housing by providing $7.5 billion in funding Project-Based Rental Assistance (PBRA) Contractentering into long-term contracts with private for-profit or nonprofit owners to lease new affordable housing.
Modern lawmakers tend to pay little attention to the White House’s budget proposals, and Congress is likely to refuse to fund any of the Biden administration’s housing plans.
“None of the White House’s tax proposals will become law,” BTIG policy research director Isaac Boltansky predicted in a March 8 analysis.
In his State of the Union address, Biden proposed “a confusing number of demand-side tax proposals despite the housing supply crisis the country is suffering,” Boltansky wrote.
For example, a proposed tax credit for households selling new homes “is designed to increase supply, but one would assume that most individuals selling their homes would be buyers,” Boltanski noted. “This proposal has no viable path to passage during this Congress.”
The Biden administration’s proposal to have Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac waive title insurance requirements for certain mortgage refinances does not require congressional approval.
The new title pilot program “is a worrying headline for the title industry, but it’s important to recognize that this is a narrow pilot focused on low-risk refinancing,” Boltanski wrote.
Boltansky predicted that the Biden administration “will continue to focus on reducing closing costs, especially as the president begins his campaign.”
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