WASHINGTON, D.C. – Statement from the National Multifamily Housing Council (NMHC) and National Apartment Association (NAA) on the passage of the Yes in My Backyard (YIMBY) Act and the Housing is Infrastructure Act through the House Financial Services Committee:
NMHC and NAA are pleased to see the House Financial Services Committee successfully markup two bills that, if signed into law, will remove barriers to housing development and will help address the nation’s housing affordability crisis.
There is no doubt communities across the country are facing serious housing affordability challenges. Recent NMHC and NAA research found that we need to build 328,000 apartments every year between 2016 and 2030 to meet the nation’s housing needs. However, the apartment industry faces significant barriers to new apartment construction, development and renovation.
NMHC and NAA support the passage of H.R. 4351, the Yes in My Backyard (YIMBY Act), sponsored by Denny Heck (D-WA) and Trey Hollingsworth (R-IN), which aims to eliminate discriminatory land use policies and remove barriers that depress production of housing in the United States by requiring Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) recipients to report on the extent to which they are removing discriminatory land use policies.
NMHC and NAA also support the passage of H.R. 5187, the Housing is Infrastructure Act, sponsored by House Financial Services Committee Chair Maxine Waters (D-CA), which makes bold investments in our nation’s housing stock and looks to remove barriers to the development of multifamily rental housing by providing $10 billion in a CDBG set-aside to incentivize states and cities to eliminate impact fees and responsibly streamline the process for development of affordable housing.
Letters expressing support for the YIMBY Act and Housing is Infrastructure Act can be found here and here.
On behalf of the apartment industry and the 40 million Americans who live in apartment homes, NMHC and NAA look forward to continuing to work with lawmakers in both parties to move forward on both of these pieces of legislation as well as other approaches aimed at bringing forth real solutions to the housing affordability crisis.
For more than 25 years, the National Multifamily Housing Council (NMHC) and the National Apartment Association (NAA) have partnered on behalf of America's apartment industry. Drawing on the knowledge and policy expertise of staff in Washington, D.C., as well as the advocacy power of 155 NAA state and local affiliated associations, NAA and NMHC provide a single voice for developers, owners and operators of multifamily rental housing. One-third of all Americans rent their housing, and 40 million of them live in an apartment home.
