Clinic Students Advocate for Affordable Housing in D.C.

On April 4, 2017, students from the Ludwig Center for Community & Economic Development (CED) traveled to Washington, D.C., to advocate for S.548, the Affordable Housing Credit Improvement Act of 2017. Matthew Ampleman ’17, Kendyl Clausen ’19, Andres Lopez-Delgado ‘18, Andy Parker ’19, and Adam Rice ’19 met with Senate and House staffers to discuss the improvements the bill will make to the Low Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC).

The bill, sponsored by Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA) and Senator Orrin Hatch (R-UT), is a bipartisan bill aimed at improving the current affordable housing tax credit scheme. It seeks to increase state allocations of affordable housing credits, creates incentives to develop affordable housing in high-opportunity areas, and encourages affordable housing developments to contribute to neighborhood revitalization.

The students met with staffers in the offices of Senator Cantwell, Senator Brown (D-OH), and Senator Blunt (R-MO). In addition, the students also met with staffers in the offices of Representatives Tiberi (R-OH) and Neal (D-MA), cosponsors of H.R. 1661, the House’s version of the Affordable Housing Credit Improvement Act of 2017.

CED’s clinic team, directed by Professor Anika Singh Lemar, represents the Fair Share Housing Center and the Poverty & Race Research Action Council in affordable housing advocacy. The Fair Share Housing Center, founded in 1975, is the only public interest organization devoted entirely to defending the housing rights of New Jersey’s poor through implementing the Mount Laurel doctrine, which requires that each municipality provides its fair share of housing affordable to low and moderate-income people. The Poverty & Race Research Action Council, founded in 1989, is a civil rights policy organization whose primary mission is to help connect advocates with social scientists working on race and poverty issues, and to promote a research-based advocacy strategy on structural inequality issues.

In addition to advocacy work, the clinic has produced several written documents for these clients. These included coalition comments to the Department of Treasury on proposed guidance. The students authored a white paper  providing state housing agencies with a recommended framework of assessment criteria for “Concerted Community Revitalization Plans,” which are intended to incentivize meaningful, concrete neighborhood improvement strategies to accompany development in high-poverty areas.   

The students also attended the National Low Income Housing Coalition’s Housing Leadership Awards Reception in Washington, D.C. At the reception, J. Ronald Terwilliger received the Edward W. Brooke Housing Leadership Award for his leadership in improving federal housing policy. Amy S. Anthony received the Cushing Niles Dolbeare Lifetime Service Award for her lifetime commitment to affordable housing.

The Ludwig Center for Community and Economic Development (CED) is part of the Jerome N. Frank Legal Services Organization at Yale Law School. CED provides transactional legal services to clients seeking to promote economic opportunity and mobility. CED’s clients include affordable housing developers, community development financial institutions, farms and farmer’s markets, fair housing advocates, and neighborhood associations.