Collegiate Housing and Infrastructure Act (H.R. 1547/S.781)

Keeping College Affordable and Improving Student Housing

Making College More Affordable Means Keeping Student Housing Costs Under Control.The high cost of college is a threat to educational equality and American competitiveness. A quirk in the tax laws allows colleges and universities to use charitable contributions to build and maintain student housing while preventing other not-for-profit student housing entities from doing the same thing.

Now is the Time to Provide Equitable Tax Treatment for All Not-For-Profit Student Housing.There is no sound policy reason for distinguishing between charitable contributions made to colleges and universities for infrastructure improvements and gifts made to other not-for-profit entities such as fraternities and sororities for the benefit of similarly situated students.The Collegiate Housing and Infrastructure Act of 2009 (H.R. 1547/S. 781) (CHIA) erases this disparity, allowing tax deductible contributions to not-for-profit student housing entities such as fraternity and sorority foundations to be used for the same purposes that a college or university could use such contributions

Room and Board Costs Outweigh the Cost of Tuition at Most Public Universities. While tuition costs continue to rise, decreasing the cost of room and board provides an opportunity to make the overall cost of a student’s education more affordable. On average, the housing provided by fraternities and sororities is less expensive than their university counterparts. Decreased funding at the state level has caused school of higher education to cut back on their expenses, resulting in the halting or delay of new dormitory construction. During this time of heighten enrollment our housing can serve as a safety-net for colleges and universities that struggle to house their students. Passing CHIA would not only generate funds for updating our infrastructure and making life-saving improvements, it would also alleviate the financial burden put on our collegiate members while helping schools meet their capacity needs.

Greek Housing is Key to the Health of the Not-For-Profit Collegiate Housing Market.The collegiate housing crunch would be even worse without fraternities and sororities, who are the nation’s largest not-for-profit student landlords.Fraternities and sororities provide housing for over 250,000 students each year at no cost to the host institution.This $3 billion dollar segment of the not-for-profit housing industry needs CHIA to become law so it can fund safety and structural improvements.Passing CHIA will help give more students access to safe and affordable not-for-profit housing, which is usually less expensive than university residence halls and off-campus housing.

Current Tax Laws Hinder Not-For-Profit Housing Access to Capital for Safety Upgrades.Places likeAmes (IA), State College (PA), and Columbia (MO) are just some of the cities across the country that have passed ordinances requiring not-for-profit student housing to close if they don’t retrofit fire sprinklers by a specific date. Our housing can be up to 100 years old so retrofitting can cost as much as $250,000. The costs cannot be passed along to current student tenants but the organizations often cannot raise the needed money to retrofit because the contributions are not tax-deductible.When CHIA becomes law, these organizations can raise the funds needed to make their housing safer and better for future generations of students.We Must Improve Collegiate Housing Safety, Capacity and Energy Efficiency. Life safety upgrades are the top challenge facing fraternal housing.Only 39% of our housing has fire sprinklers so our smaller and older living spaces have twice the injury rate of other campus fires and significantly higher rates of property losses. 80% of fatalities in student housing fires since 2000 have occurred in off-campus housing such as fraternities and sororities.Installing automatic sprinkler systems saves lives – there has never been a fire-related fatality in fraternal housing that has sprinklers.Given the age of our housing, there is also a need to install modern heating, cooling and electrical systems that are more energy efficient and environmentally friendly.

CHIA will provide incentive for the generation of funding for capital and safety upgrades through infrastructure improvements and new construction. Over $1 billion in capital improvement projects at fraternity housing nationwide is ready for construction but needs funding. Private funds will create and maintain jobs for local plumbers, roofers, carpenters, electricians, contractors and other individuals working in the declining construction industry.

Passing the Collegiate House and Infrastructure Act (CHIA) would:

·Fulfill the Congressional Goal to “Make College More Affordable” with a minimal cost to taxpayers by offering a less expensive housing alternative.The Committee on Joint Taxation scored the cost of CHIA at $148 million over ten years in 2008.

·Encourage new charitable contributionsto improve current collegiate housing, thereby preserving and upgrading existing housing capacity and helping construct the new housing needed to accommodate growing student populations.

·Result in safer student housing by enabling fraternities and sororities to fund the installation of modern life safety equipment such as fire sprinklers, smoke detectors, and alarm systems.

·Create and maintain jobs relatedto $1 billion in planned capital construction and improvements.

To become a sponsor of the Collegiate Housing and Infrastructure Act of 2009 contactClaire Gartland in Congresswoman Shelley Berkley’s office (225-5965) in the House OR Jennifer Cook in Senator Pat Roberts’ office (224-4774) in the Senate.