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Adam Schiff: Save Affordable Housing With A New Tax Break For Owners

By Caroline Champlin
Published Feb 21, 2020 2:27 PM
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Rep. Adam Schiff talks with Assemblymember Laura Friedman at the Coronel Apartments in East Hollywood on Feb. 21, 2020. (Caroline Champlin/LAist)
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U.S. Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Burbank) has a plan to stem the rapid loss of L.A.'s affordable housing: offer a tax break to building owners if they sell to someone who will keep the housing affordable. Schiff is in Hollywood today to promote the bill.

The Affordable and Homeless Housing Incentives Act would exempt building owners from having to pay capital gains tax if they sell to an affordable housing operator, like the government or a nonprofit. Property owners would also have to reinvest the proceeds in another property within three years.

The new housing operator would then have to agree to use the property as affordable housing for low-income families, or as a shelter, for at least 30 years.

L.A.'s housing department has estimated that 11,771 units are at risk of converting from affordable to market-rate rents in coming years. Schiff's bill is designed to help affordable housing operators compete for property in tight markets like L.A.

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Schiff convened a roundtable on Friday to get feedback on the bill from local legislators, developers and residents. He also planned to tour the Coronel Apartments, recently-opened affordable housing units in East Hollywood.

READ MORE:

Affordable and Homeless Housing Incentives Act (1-pager)

Can LA Save Affordable Housing Through Eminent Domain? (LAist)

This Vietnamese Grandmother Went From Chinatown To Brentwood Looking For The Landlord Trying to Evict Her (LAist)

How California's Housing Crisis Turned Into A Homeless Crisis (LAist)