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2009 Collegiate Housing and Infrastructure Act

Pass the Collegiate Housing and Infrastructure Act of 2009

(H.R. 1547/S.781) Make College MoreAffordable by Preserving Not-for-Profit Student Housing


Making College More AffordableMeans Keeping Student Housing Costs Under Control.  The highcost of college is a threat to educational equality and Americancompetitiveness.  A quirk in thetax laws allows colleges and universities to use charitable contributions tobuild and maintain student housing while preventing other not-for-profitstudent housing entities from doing the same thing. 

Now is the Time to ProvideEquitable Tax Treatment for All Not-For-Profit Student Housing.  There is no sound policy reasonfor distinguishing between charitable contributions made to colleges anduniversities for infrastructure improvements and gifts made to othernot-for-profit entities such as fraternities and sororities for the benefit ofsimilarly situated students.  The Collegiate Housing andInfrastructure Act of 2009 (H.R. 1547/S. 781) (CHIA) erasesthis disparity, allowing tax deductible contributions to not-for-profit studenthousing entities such as fraternity and sorority foundations to be used for thesame purposes that a college or university could use such contributions.  In the 110thCongress, CHIA secured 210 sponsors in the house and 40 sponsors in the Senate.

 

 

One Out of EveryEight College Students Lives in Greek Housing.  Thehousing shortage would be even worse without fraternities and sororities, whoare the nation’s largest not-for-profit student landlords.  Fraternities and sororities providehousing for over 250,000 students each year at no cost to the hostinstitution.  This $3 billiondollar segment of the not-for-profit housing industry needs CHIA to become lawso it can fund safety and structural improvements.  Passing CHIA will help give more students access to safe andaffordable not-for-profit housing, which is usually less expensive thanuniversity residence halls and off-campus housing. 

We Must Improve Collegiate Housing Safety, Capacity and Energy Efficiency.  Life safety upgrades are the top challengefacing fraternal housing.  Onlyhalf of our housing has fire sprinklers so our smaller and older living spaceshave twice the injury rate of other campus fires and significantly higher ratesof property losses.  80% of fatalities in student housing firessince 2000 have occurred in off-campus housing such as fraternities andsororities.  Installing automaticsprinkler systems saves lives - there has never been a fire-related fatalityin fraternal housing that has sprinklers.  Given the age of our housing, there is a need to installmodern heating, cooling and electrical systems that are more energy efficient andenvironmentally friendly.  

 

Current Tax Laws Hinder Not-for-Profit Housing Access to Capital for Safety Upgrades. College towns such as Ames (IA), State College(PA), and Columbia (MO) are just some of the cities across the country thathave passed ordinances requiring not-for-profit student housing to close ifthey don’t retrofit fire sprinklers by a specific date.  Fraternity housing can be up to 100years old so retrofitting can cost as much as $200,000. These costs cannot bepassed along to current student tenants but the organizations often cannotraise the needed money to retrofit because the contributions are nottax-deductible.  If CHIA becomeslaw, these organizations can raise the funds needed to make their housing saferand better for future generations of students. 

CHIA will provideincentive for the generation of funding for capital and safety upgrades throughinfrastructure improvements and new construction. Over $1 billion incapital projects have been identified by Greek organizations at campuses acrossthe country. Private funds will create and maintain jobs for local plumbers,roofers, carpenters, electricians, contractors and other individuals working inthe suffering construction industry.

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

Ø   Make college more affordable witha minimal cost to taxpayers by offering a less expensive housingalternative.  The Committee onJoint Taxation scored the cost of CHIA at $148 million over ten years in 2009.

Ø   Encourage new charitablecontributions to improve current collegiate housing, therebypreserving and upgrading existing housing capacity and helping construct thenew housing needed to accommodate growing student populations.

Ø   Result in safer student housing by enabling fraternities andsororities to fund the installation of modern life safetyequipment such as fire sprinklers, smoke detectors, and alarm systems.

Ø   Create and maintain jobs relatedto capital construction and improvements. 

To become a sponsor of the Collegiate Housing andInfrastructure Act of 2009 contact JenniferPollack in Congresswoman Shelley Berkley’s office 225-5969 in the House orJennifer Cook in Senator Pat Roberts’ office 224-4774 in the Senate.
 
2009 April Hill Visits
From April 18th-21st over 100 university students and national organization presidents will travel to Washington D.C to advocate on behalf of the Collegiate Housing and Infrastructure Act of 2009 (H.R. 1547/S.781). While CHIA already enjoys the support of 52 Representatives and 11 Senators, we need your support and effort to help pass the bill in 2009. Click on the news flashes below to download a letter to send to your university president or Representative/Senator!
 
2009 CHIA Sponsorship Letter - Please help us get people to sign it!

Friday, April 10,2009
 
Name
Address
City, State Zip
 
RE: Please Sponsor H.R. 1547/S. 781
 
Dear _____________:

Note:The recipient's name and address will be automatically added to your letter.
Customize the opening paragraph of the letter. It is very important that youmodify the [INFORMATION] fields and other text to be specific to you. Tailoringthe opening paragraph to your personal situation provides a betterunderstanding of your relationship to this issue.

AN EXAMPLE OF THE OPENING PARAGRAPH SHOULDBE SIMILAR TO THE FOLLOWING TEXT:

Please consider co-sponsoring the Collegiate Housing and Infrastructure Act of2009 (H.R. 1547/S. 781), a bill giving equal tax treatment to all charitablecontributions made to not-for-profit student housing. I am [A MEMBER/THECHAPTER PRESIDENT/AN ALUMNUS] of [FRATERNITY OR SORORITY] at [NAME OFINSTITUTION], and I feel that this bill will ensure safe and modern housing forall college students.

Enter the opening paragraph of yourmessage in the box below.

In this ailingeconomy, students are having a harder time than ever before funding theireducation.  Fraternities andsororities fill an important need in providing housing that is often moreaffordable than on-campus housing.  This housing creates an environmentpromoting academic and personal enrichment.  Unfortunately, the conditionof fraternity and sorority housing on my campus is deteriorating and funds forlong-term safety and capital improvements are desperately needed.

 

The problem of deterioratingstructures and dated fire safety systems, heating, cooling, and electricalsystems that are unsafe and energy-inefficient can be addressed by correctingthe needless tax disparity between not-for-profit student housing. Colleges and universities are allowed to use charitable gifts to build,improve, and renovate residence halls and other student housing facilities theyown.  However, the current tax code prevents fraternities and sororities,who provide similar housing facilities for students, from using the samecharitable donations to improve and renovate the buildings we own.  Thisarbitrary distinction in the tax code means colleges and universities can usetax-deductible funds to install fire detection and prevention systems in theirstudent housing, but fraternities and sororities cannot use donated funds totake the same life-saving measures in their student housing.

 

I support theCollegiate Housing and Infrastructure Act of 2009 because it will allow theeducational foundation of my fraternal organization to raise funds to improvethe safety and poor condition of our houses.  We are just a piece of thenot-for-profit student housing market but our more than 4,000 housing unitsnationwide have at least a $1 billion backlog of housing improvements, renovationsand construction that can be started soon after the Collegiate Housing andInfrastructure Act of 2009 becomes law. 

 

Given the ageand condition of non-profit collegiate housing, there is a pressing need toinstall modern heating and cooling units, in addition to electrical systemsthat are safe, energy-efficient and environmentally friendly.  In addition, more than 60% of ourhousing units are not equipped with fire sprinklers.  Since 2000, 80 percent of all fatalities in student housingfires have occurred in off-campus housing such as is provided by fraternitiesand sororities, making fire safety and prevention a paramount concern. Funding these improvements and safety measures through our educationalfoundations affords the necessary upgrades without any additional cost to ourcampus.

 

The CollegiateHousing and Infrastructure Act of 2009 eliminates a pointless inequality in thelaw by allowing tax-deductible charitable contributions to be used similarly byall not-for-profit student housing providers.  It ensures that safe andmodern structures are available to students and forestalls preventable injuryand death.  Moreover, passing the Act creates tens of thousands of jobs inconstruction and manufacturing industries nationwide and is very cost effective. 

 

Please become aco-sponsors of H.R. 1547/S. 781 and demonstrate your support for this bill.

 
 
2009 CHIA University President Letter - Please ask your University President to sign this letter!

 

[DATE]

 

 

DearSenator/Congressman [NAME]:

 

As[PRESIDENT/CHANCELLOR] of [UNIVERSITY], I am writing to you today to urge youto co-sponsor the 2009 Collegiate Housing and Infrastructure Act (CHIA) (H.R.1547/S.781).  CHIA will help provide safe, modern andaffordable housing for all college students and end an arbitrary distinction intax law that harms some not-for-profit student housing.  The bill allows more not-for-profitentities to use tax-deductible charitable contributions to build, maintain orimprove their not-for-profit student housing.  While CHIA already enjoys the support of 52 Representativesand 11 Senators, we need your support and effort to help pass the bill in 2009.

 

Collegiate enrollment is rapidly rising at a time of alreadysevere housing shortages on campuses. Not-for-profit housing fills the gap by providing a critical source ofadditional, affordable housing for college students.  For example, fraternity and sorority houses across thecountry now house more than 250,000 college students.  Here at [school name], we have [number of Greek houses oncampus] fraternity and sorority houses that are home to [number of studentsliving in Greek housing] students.

 

Unfortunately, the age of fraternity and sorority housing onmy campus calls for significant capital improvements for life-savingfire-safety, technology enhancements, and comprehensive maintenance to keep thefacilities sustainable for future generations of students.  Our school is able to use ourcharitable contributions to build, improve, and renovate residence halls toprovide safe housing for students but an arbitrary distinction in the currenttax code prevents our fraternities, sororities and other not-for-profit studenthousing owners from using their charitable contributions to improve andrenovate the buildings they own. The result is that the state of other not-for-profit student housing isdeclining and access to affordable housing is scarce in the current economicenvironment because these groups lack proper access to the capital fundingneeded to make significant improvements.

 

Passing the 2009 Collegiate Housing and Infrastructure Actmeans future generations of students will find better and safer housing on ourcampus.  It is important thatfederal tax laws and federal education policy encourage investments that willincrease the safety, capacity and capabilities of collegiate housing optionsavailable to all students.  Forthose reasons, I strongly encourage you to become a co-sponsor and work with usto see this bill become law this year.

 

[SIGNATURE]

[TITLE]

 

 
 
University of Wisconsin Fraternity House Fire
On May 13, 2008, the Sigma Phi Epsilon house at the University of Wisconsin-Madison was completely wiped out by a fire. There were no injuries. The Sig Ep house had no sprinklers installed, and damage is estimated at $750,000.
 
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