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Tuesday, June 19, 2007
NELSON: AFFORDABLE HOUSING FOR MILITARY FAMILIES

 Nebraska's Senator Ben Nelson co-sponsored legislation last week to help military families find safe and affordable housing as many personnel find themselves relocating due to the Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) process. The Military Access to Housing Act of 2007 (S. 839) seeks to correct a technicality in the tax code that unfairly renders many lower- and middle-income military families ineligible for certain types of affordable housing.

"We should make every effort necessary to ensure our military families have access to affordable housing," said Nelson. "This bill will ease the transition as personnel in Nebraska and across the country adjust to changes at military bases." 

Currently, some military families who use their basic allowance for housing (BAH) to obtain off-base housing are ineligible to participate in the Low Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) program. The LIHTC program's current rules count a service member's BAH as income when calculating LIHTC eligibility - even though the BAH is not counted as income by the IRS. 

This bill follows IRS standards and removes a service member's BAH from his/her LIHTC salary computation, thereby qualifying him/her for affordable housing. Senator Nelson is Chair of the Senate Armed Services Personnel Subcommittee. 

In Nebraska, two LIHTC-financed properties near Bellevue's Offutt Air Force Base have been forced to turn away nearly 200 military families a year due to the income calculation. This legislation would alleviate this problem and open more housing options to service members in the Bellevue area.

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