There is no one solution that will solve the problem of corporate ownership of affordable housing units. A combination of policy change on the local, state, and federal levels will help, and the expansion of programs that support current or prospective homeowners can mitigate some of the impact.

In December 2022 HUD Secretary Marcia Fudge’s remarks during a quarterly meeting of the Office of Policy Development & Research (PD&R) to specifically address the challenges as well as create solutions stated: “Institutional investors have access to resources that make them impossible to compete with. This is especially true for minority first-time homebuyers, who already face institutional barriers.” Fudge added: “HUD has taken steps to ensure that our defaulted assets will land in the hands of non-profits or individual owners, but this is a much bigger problem that will take everyone coming together to figure out how to sustain housing that people can afford.”

The silver-lining is that government, local jurisdictions, non-profits and community groups are collaborating across the country to create and implement solutions that will give homeowners and first-time homebuyers a fighting chance to participate in creating generational wealth.

During a recent panel discussion at the Habitat on the Hill 2023 Advocacy for Impact Conference in Washington, D.C., panelists shared some of the ways they hoped to lessen the impact of institutional investor purchases including:

• Creating acquisition funds for the public purchase of properties
• Improving tax incentives for affordable development
• Improving land use policies with bonuses for building and preserving of affordable housing
• Additional owner occupancy requirements and renter protections
• Expanding the use of HUD Note Funds where non-profits can purchase these notes as another source of available housing at discounted prices
• Sellers not having to pay Real Estate Excise Taxes when land is sold to non-profits
• Implementing new and updated rezoning codes to expand opportunities for more affordable housing
• Provide/expand Right of First Refusal (ROFR) for non-profits working to expand affordable housing
• Expanded and expedient access to Vacant, Abandoned Tax Delinquent (VAT) properties