SPRINGFIELD (WGEM) – Needing nearly 300,000 affordable rental homes and apartments, Illinois has one of the largest housing deficits in the U.S. according to the Illinois Housing Council (IHC), which estimates the state has lost about 20% of its low-rent apartments since 2011.
State lawmakers are proposing a new tax credit to help reverse that trend.
“Our housing crisis demands immediate attention. Illinois now has one of the highest deficits in housing across the country and it’s grown 64% in the last decade,” said IHC Executive Director Allison Clements.
The state’s housing deficit is why lawmakers have proposed the Build Illinois Homes State Tax Credit.
“Illinois needs to prioritize affordable housing,” said state Rep. Dagmara “Dee” Avelar, D-Bolingbrook.
Avelar is sponsoring the plan in the state House of Representatives.
She said her constituents tell her buying and renting are getting too expensive.
“They are being priced out of their homes or apartments,” she said.
If the proposal became law, the state would put $20 million annually into the program over the next six years. The program would mirror the federal low-income housing tax credit, albeit smaller. Investors would build affordable apartments and receive tax credits after construction is completed and qualified tenants move in.
Though the program wouldn’t come close to eliminating Illinois’ affordable housing shortage, Avelar thinks the tax credit program would be a solution that could last.
“We need to find long-term solutions to affordable housing. We can’t just do it in grants. Grants are band-aid solutions. Very much needed, but they help us in the short term, and we need long-term solutions,” Avelar said.
The IHC estimates the program could lead to investors building up to 1,150 affordable homes and apartments creating more than 7,000 jobs and more than $650 million in economic benefits over a decade.
Though Avelar and state Sen. Robert Peters, D-Chicago, filed stand-alone bills creating the program, it would be passed into law through the state’s fiscal year 2025 budget.
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