At a recent round table discussion with educators and representatives from homewise, Senator Martin Heinrich was able to talk about legislation that would support educators and first-time-home buyers with tax credits.
Homewise is an organization whose mission is to help create successful homeowners and strengthen New Mexico neighborhoods, by providing assistance with many aspects of buying a home.
Senator Heinrich says the housing situation has changed during his political tenure.
“It’s interesting to coming full-circle on housing because it was something I worked a lot on the Albuquerque city council between 2003 and 2007 and I was remarking about how at about the time I was elected to congress we had a big recession and we lost a lot of capacity and we are really feeling the pressure of that now with such a constraint market. Our challenges in the central part of the state at that time where we were building houses so fast we couldn't keep up with teachers and schools and infrastructure, and now that is on its head.”
Senator Heinrich said he has two pieces of legislation that would help the housing situation and bolster the state's housing stock.
“A specific bill around educators in particular because this is a challenge all across the country where you have educators that frankly can’t afford a home in the community where they are teaching. And finally, something we’ve been calling the new homes tax credit, but we have to change the name to clear it up with some other legislation; that would create incentives with groups like homewise to be able to start rebuilding this capacity and get more and more housing stock out there and accessible to folks. And homewise has been spectacular in terms of working with our staff to come up with legislative solutions that we think will actually work.”
To qualify for the educator program, individuals would have to work for a learning institution for 3 years and commit to working for an additional three years with documentation from the institution.
