Industry Groups Applaud Passage of Bipartisan Housing Act
Now that the House has voted, advocates are urging the Senate to move promptly on a final bill.
The Housing for the 21st Century Act, a bipartisan housing package aimed at increasing the number of housing units and easing the housing affordability crisis in the U.S., has passed the House of Representatives by a vote of 390-9. Housing and multifamily industry officials are now calling for the Senate to approve a final negotiated bill that can be sent to the President as quickly as possible.
The package, which is the House version of the Senate’s separate legislation, the ROAD to Housing Act, contains key provisions related to land-use and zoning, regulatory reforms and financing tools to ultimately make it easier to build new homes and reduce costs for builders, buyers, renters and communities. While there are similarities in the two bills, there are differences that will need to be worked out.
The House bill was introduced in December and sponsored by Committee on Financial Services Chairman French Hill (R-Ark.) and Ranking Member Maxine Waters (D-Calif.), along with Subcommittee on Housing and Insurance Chair Mike Flood (R-Neb.) and Ranking Member Emanuel Cleaver (D-Mo.).
The leaders of three industry groups—the National Multifamily Housing Council, National Apartment Association and Real Estate Technology and Transformation Center—issued a joint statement calling for the Senate to pass the ROAD to Housing Act as part of efforts to finalize a long-term, sustainable housing package.
The statement from NMHC President Sharon Wilson Géno, RETTC Executive Director & Chief Advocacy Officer Kevin Donnelly and NAA President & CEO Bob Pinnegar said the House vote Monday night showed historic momentum in Congress to move policies forward to increase developments and housing access.
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Dennis Shea, executive director of the J. Ronald Terwilliger Center for Housing Policy at the Bipartisan Policy Center, said it was encouraging to see bipartisan housing legislation continue to advance in Congress.
The passage of the bill marks an important step toward improving housing affordability across the nation, Tara Roche project director, Housing Policy Initiative at The Pew Charitable Trusts noted. In a prepared statement, she signaled that increasing financing options and streamlining regulatory requirements are essential to any affordability strategy.
Closer look at the legislation
Some of the key provisions of the Housing for the 21st Century Act are:
- Directing the Department of Housing and Urban Development to develop guidelines for states and localities to modernize zoning rules
- Classifying certain multifamily projects as exempt from environmental reviews
- Changing the federal definition of a “manufactured home” to include modern, factory-produced houses
- Updating the statutory minimum maximum loan limits for Federal Housing Administration mortgage insurance for multifamily projects to reflect current costs
- Direct the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to study income standards for workforce housing and recommend how federal housing policy can better serve middle-income earners
- Lifting the public welfare investment cap from 15 percent to 20 percent, which would increase banks’ capacity to invest in the Housing Credit
Unlocking more LIHTC investment
Emily Cadik, CEO of the Affordable Housing Tax Credit Coalition, described the bill as a bipartisan effort to address housing supply constraints amid ongoing affordability challenges across the country.
Cadik said the provision to increase banks’ public welfare investment cap would expand private-sector investment in projects financed through the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit, which she characterized as the primary federal tool for affordable rental housing production.
In a prepared statement, Dudley Benoit, senior managing director at Walker & Dunlop and president of the AHTCC board, said increasing the PWI cap would allow banks to more effectively leverage the Housing Credit and expand affordable housing investment nationwide.
Last summer, Congress approved the largest expansion of LIHTC in decades as part of the One Big Beautiful Bill. A month later in August, the Federal Housing Finance Agency doubled the amount Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac can invest in LIHTC properties annually from $1 billion to $2 billion each, for a total of $4 billion per year.
