Two of the biggest multifamily associations are supporting a bipartisan bill in Congress aimed at attracting more private landlords to participate in the Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher Program.

The National Multifamily Housing Council and the National Apartment Association on Thursday voiced support for the Choice in Affordable Housing Act, which was proposed last year and reintroduced in the House of Representatives this week by Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, a Democrat from Missouri, and Rep. Lori Chavez-DeRemer, a Republican from Oregon. It was also introduced in the Senate in January by a bipartisan group of lawmakers.

Private landlord participation in the program has been on the decline for the past decade. Between 2009 and 2016, the number of private landlords participating in the program fell from 775,000 to 695,000, according to the Department of Housing and Urban Development. Without this participation, advocates say voucher holders have experienced difficulty in the housing search process.

“The reasonable reforms included in the Choice in Affordable Housing Act will improve the program for both residents and housing providers and increase private housing provider participation, which are a good first step toward increasing opportunity for millions of American families and help them find homes,” NMHC President Sharon Wilson Géno said in a statement.

Some key features of the bill include providing $500M to create a fund that would offer landlords signing bonuses for units that are in areas with less than 20% poverty, providing security deposit assistance and providing a bonus to public housing agencies that retain a landlord liaison.

Other parts of the bill call for increasing funding to the Tribal HUD-Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing program, changing the formulas used to set rents on a neighborhood level to improve fairness, reducing inspection delays and encouraging HUD to reform its annual evaluation of public housing agencies.

The Section 8 voucher program is the country's largest rental assistance program and provides vouchers to 5.3 million people, according to the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities.

In April, HUD announced it would provide $30.3B in funding toward the voucher program, marking a 10% increase from the prior year. Of that funding, $27B went to public housing agencies.

Housing advocates have also been pushing to expand the Family Self-Sufficiency program, which benefits Section 8 tenants by helping them save money.