A Democratic senator is seeking to amend a House-passed housing bill with provisions that would allow people who work in the state-legal marijuana industry to qualify for federal mortgage loans.
As the Senate prepares to take up the Housing for the 21st Century Act—which cleared the House last month with rare, overwhelming bipartisan support—Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-OR) submitted an amendment to extend home loan eligibility for those working at licensed cannabis businesses.
Specifically, the proposed amendment stipulates that income derived from state-sanctioned marijuana businesses would be treated no differently than that from other industries for the purposes of obtaining federally backed single-family mortgage loans, with additional protections against forfeiture based on participation in the cannabis market.
Federally backed loans would include any that are “secured by a first or subordinate lien on residential real property, including individual units of condominiums and cooperatives, designed principally for the occupancy of 1 to 4 families” and insured by the National Housing Act, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) or “purchased or securitized by the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation or the Federal National Mortgage Association.”
“Income derived from a State-sanctioned marijuana business that operates within a State, an
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