Housing for Homeless Students Act Introduced

Representative Jim McDermott (D-WA) recently introduced the “Housing for Homeless Students Act” (H.R. 5290), which would allow full-time students who are or recently have been homeless to qualify for housing at tax credit sites. H.R. 5290 would exempt individuals from the student rule if they were homeless at any time in the previous seven years and met the definition of “homeless children and youth” under the McKinney-Vento Homelessness Assistance Act. The bill also exempts veterans pursuing full-time education, provided they were homeless at any point in the five years prior to moving into their LIHTC unit.

The bill currently has three co-sponsors and was referred to the House Committee on Ways and Means. An identical version of the bill was introduced in the Senate in May of 2015 and was referred to the Committee on Finance.