NAHB Chairman issues statement housing plan
Carl Harris, Chairman of the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) and a custom home builder from Wichita, Kan., issued the following statement after the New Democrat Coalition unveiled its Housing Action Plan:
“NAHB commends the New Democrat Coalition for releasing its Housing Action Plan and making housing an important national priority,” Harris said. “The best way to tame shelter inflation and to ease the nation’s housing affordability crisis is to put into place policies that will enable home builders to increase the supply of housing.”
“This housing blueprint contains several elements to achieve this goal, including promoting and funding job training programs like Job Corps to address persistent labor shortages in the industry; strengthening the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit to increase the production of affordable housing; and focusing on building material supply chain challenges, most notably for transformers, which are delaying home building projects and raising construction costs.
“NAHB looks forward to working with the New Democrat Coalition to keep housing atop the national agenda and to enact common-sense solutions that allow home builders to expand housing production.”
Support for Biden plan
Harris was elected as the association’s latest chairman at the 2024 NAHB International Builders’ Show in Las Vegas.
Since, Harris and the NAHB have applauded recent housing moves by President Biden’s administration.
Earlier this month, the NAHB said Biden’s comprehensive housing plan, proposed during the State of the Union address would help ease the nation’s housing affordability issues and enable “more hardworking families to achieve homeownership and rental housing opportunities.”
Initiatives proposed by the president include building and preserving an additional 2 million homes—including a new $10,000 tax credit for first-time home buyers, strengthening the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit and up to $25,000 in down payment assistance to first-generation home buyers.
The NAHB said these are important steps forward to address a national housing shortage of roughly 1.5 million units and to boost housing affordability.
