# Housing, Opportunity, Mobility, and Equity Act of 2022

This bill tackles affordable housing from multiple angles, trying to make it easier for communities to build more affordable homes and helping renters who are struggling with high housing costs.

The first major piece requires cities and towns that receive federal community development money to create a plan for making housing more affordable. Specifically, they need to develop strategies that remove barriers to building affordable housing—things like allowing taller apartment buildings, reducing parking requirements, speeding up the approval process for new construction, and allowing smaller homes on smaller lots. The bill also encourages communities to ban discrimination based on how someone's rent is paid (like refusing tenants who use housing vouchers) and to allow accessory dwelling units like granny flats. Communities have to show they're actually making progress on these goals or they could lose federal transportation funding. This is designed to address the fact that many neighborhoods have zoning rules that make it nearly impossible to build affordable housing.

The second major piece creates a new tax credit for renters who are paying too much of their income toward rent. If your rent exceeds 30 percent of your income, you could get money back through this credit. The bill also sets up a system where the IRS can send you monthly payments throughout the year instead of waiting until tax time, similar to how the child tax credit worked during the pandemic. This would put money directly into renters' pockets when they need it most.

Finally, the bill includes a "Rainy Day Savings Program" that lets taxpayers set aside 20 percent of their tax refund in a special savings account that earns interest, with the money automatically returned to them after six months. This is meant to help people build emergency savings rather than spending their entire refund at once.

Housing, Opportunity, Mobility, and Equity Act of 2022

Clyburn, James E.

Housing, Opportunity, Mobility, and Equity Act of 2022 This bill addresses zoning policies, housing affordability, and economic security. Specifically, the bill requires each state or local government that receives a Community Development Block Grant from the Department of Housing and Urban Development or a Surface Transportation Block Grant from the Department of Transportation to develop and implement a strategy to support zoning policies or regulatory initiatives that create a more affordable, elastic, and diverse housing supply. Additionally, the bill establishes a tax credit for individuals who spend more than 30% of their adjusted gross income on rent and requires the Department of the Treasury to make advance payments of this credit to eligible taxpayers who elect that option. The bill also requires Treasury to establish a Rainy Day Savings Program to allow an eligible taxpayer to defer 20% of the amount that would otherwise be refunded to the taxpayer. Treasury must invest the deferred amount and later disburse that amount, along with any interest, to the taxpayer.