May 13, 2022

Cortez Masto Joins Colleagues in Introducing Bipartisan LIFELINE Act to Unlock American Rescue Plan Funds for Affordable Housing Development

 An estimated 46 percent of renters across the nation are burdened by housing costs

Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senator Cortez Masto (D-Nev.) joined U.S. Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) and a bipartisan group of senators in introducing the Low-Income Financing Enabling Long-term Investment in Neighborhood Excellence (LIFELINE) Act, legislation to improve the ability of states and localities to allocate American Rescue Plan funds for new affordable housing built with the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) investments.


“I was proud to help secure federal dollars in the American Rescue Plan that Nevada is using to build affordable housing,” said Senator Cortez Masto. “Nearly all affordable housing projects require multiple sources of funding, and this bill will help ensure that communities can leverage as many resources as possible to build safe and affordable homes.”


Across the country, state and local governments have chosen to use State and Local Fiscal Relief Funds from the American Rescue Plan to build affordable housing. In Nevada, Governor Sisolak set aside $500 million in American Rescue Plan funding for the Home Means Nevada Initiative to build more affordable housing across the state. The LIFELINE Act solves a technical problem that makes combining the use of American Rescue Plan funds with the LIHTC very difficult. LIHTC are structured as 30-year loans while the American Rescue Plan funds are grants with expiration dates no later than 2026. The LIFELINE Act would solve this discrepancy by allowing states and localities to loan American Rescue Plan funds to LIHTC projects, thus utilizing all affordable housing resources to get projects completed.

Senator Cortez Masto has been a leader in expanding affordable housing options for Nevadans. She has secured protections for homeowners and renters and led multiple bills to increase federal and private funding for housing, prevent housing discrimination, and hold lenders accountable for discrimination in mortgage lending. The senator has successfully passed legislation to ensure that state and local governments consider manufactured housing when prioritizing their housing investments. Cortez Masto’s support of the American Rescue Plan helped deliver over $500 million in affordable housing funding to the state of Nevada, and she recently to secured an additional $1 million for the construction of affordable housing and new business developments in Clark County through the annual government funding package.


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