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apartment . We need people to work at all jobs at all levels . We need people at retail locations , we need bus drivers , we need policemen , we need schoolteachers , we need dog walkers ; we need people at every level . And so , if you can ’ t work minimum wage and afford to live there , there ’ s something wrong .
So , with that significance in mind , what is the solution ? Investment in innovation . What I ’ m advocating for is an increase in the amount of LITHC available in the US . As we speak , there is a bipartisan bill in DC that has the support of both the Democrats and the Republicans . It has made its way through the Ways and Means Committee of the House of Representatives with a 40-tothree vote . It should be taken up by the house this week , with approval , and then it would move on to the Senate . It has in it effectively three components . One is an R & D credit , which of course has been promoted by the Republicans . It ihas a reinstatement of the Child Tax Credit , which has been promoted by the Democrats . And then the last component is about $ 6 billion allocated to more affordable housing . But why do we need more supply ? It ’ s a simple economics supply and demand . We ’ re facing unprecedented inflation right now . But you can ’ t tackle inflation without tackling housing . We have to think differently , and I think that applies to homebuilding businesses out there as well – there ’ s a way for everyone to come together to help out with this , but that starts with raising awareness of the implications this has .
Thank you , Tony . I can tell you ’ re incredibly passionate about this issue , and rightly so . To bring the conversation to a close , my final question for you is : if you weren ’ t in real estate , what would you be doing ?
I often joke that if I wasn ’ t involved in this business , I would probably be a dog walker , because I don ’ t really have any other skills . And I love dogs . But I really can ’ t picture myself doing anything else . I ’ ve become a little bit of a one trick pony in affordable housing , but that said , there ’ s certainly more complexity to it than that . I mean , we raised and closed to about $ 1.4 billion of equity last year , we have about $ 11 billion under management . We have 160 employees , so ,
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