The House of Representatives passed the Housing for the 21st Century Act on Monday, which aims to improve affordability through a series of zoning, financing and regulatory overhauls.
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The U.S. House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed the Housing for the 21st Century Act on Monday.
The act is a 138-page bill aimed at improving housing affordability by streamlining zoning and permitting laws, encouraging upzoning to increase housing density, expanding access to development block grants, increasing the use of manufactured housing and improving financing options for homebuyers.
The bill has broad bipartisan support, with Rep. French Hill (R-Ark.) and Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) co-sponsoring the bill.
“When there aren’t enough homes, prices go up,” Hill wrote in a Feb. 6 op-ed for The Hill. “The Housing for the 21st Century Act includes real, bipartisan solutions to boost development by clearing out red tape and letting communities and local banks do their job. That’s how we expand supply, lower costs, and give families more options.”
The bill, which must now pass the Senate, is comprised of five main parts:
- Building Smarter for the 21st Century: This section, known as Title I, focuses on streamlining zoning and permitting laws. If passed, the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) would be charged with creating a “local zoning framework” that state and local municipalities could use to significantly boost housing stock, like reducing parking minimums and allowing multifamily housing (e.g., duplexes, triplexes, fourplexes, etc.) to be built on land previously zoned for single-family housing. The section also creates new exclusions and exemptions for office-to-residential conversions, and quadruples the Federal Housing Administration’s multifamily loan limits.
- Modernizing Local Development and Rural Housing Programs: The second section focuses on modernizing the HOME Investment Partnerships Program and the Community Development Block Grant programs, and on expanding access to building grants.
- Expanding Manufactured and Affordable Housing Finance: This section focuses on expanding access to manufactured housing through a series of financial and regulatory overhauls. However, the main proposal focuses on establishing a Federal Housing Administration pilot program for small-dollar mortgages to help homebuyers access financing for homes priced at $100,000 or less.
- Protecting Borrowers and Assisted Families: The fourth section expands protections and housing access for buyers and renters by expanding housing counseling programs, starting a national eviction helpline, and excluding certain disability benefits from income calculations for HUD housing assistance and establishing data-sharing between HUD, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and the Department of Veterans Affairs, among several other things.
- Enhancing Oversight of Housing Providers: The final section requires the HUD Secretary, currently Scott Turner, to testify before Congress annually. Also, any housing agency with an administrative or judicial receiver or Federal monitor must submit annual notices to HUD, and those receivers and monitors must submit detailed reports to the House Financial Services Committee and the Senate Banking Committee, including unresolved issues.
The House Committee on Financial Services said more than 70 groups have backed the bill, including the National Association of Realtors, the National Association of Home Builders, and dozens of housing, banking and manufacturing groups.
An NAR spokesperson said the trade group “strongly supports” the Act, adding that the bill provides “the kind of comprehensive approach” needed to help solve a decades-long housing affordability crisis.
“NAR strongly supports bipartisan efforts in both chambers to address this crisis, and we believe Congress must act decisively to remove barriers to housing production and reform outdated programs, while giving communities the tools they need to build more homes,” NAR’s statement read. “By addressing barriers at the federal, state, and local levels, H.R. 6644 represents the kind of comprehensive approach needed to expand housing opportunities and restore affordability.”
“This legislation provides communities with technical assistance and incentives to reduce local barriers to housing development, streamlines federal environmental reviews that delay production, and modernizes critical programs like [HOME Investment Partnerships Program] and [Community Development Block Grant Programs] to work more effectively,” it continued. “It also removes outdated manufactured housing requirements and strengthens pathways for families to access credit and build wealth through homeownership.”
The Act has few detractors, with only nine representatives — Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.), Josh Brecheen (R-Okla.), Eli Crane (R-Ariz.), Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.), Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), Tom McClintock (R-Calif.), Chip Roy (R-Texas), Ryan Zinke (R-Mont.), and Lizzie Fletcher (D-Texas) — voting nay on Monday.
Although the first step went off without a hitch, there might be a few roadblocks ahead as the Senate floats its own affordability bill, the ROAD to Housing Act.
Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) told Politico she has a few issues with the House’s bill, especially the sections that loosen regulations on community banks. Warren also wants the House to “take up” ROAD, which House Republicans don’t seem keen to do.
“ROAD to Housing is a Jenga tower. Adding or taking things away risks losing the unanimous coalition that we have built in the Senate,” Warren told the publication. “House Republicans should not hold housing relief hostage to push forward several bank deregulatory bills that will make our community banks more fragile.”
Read the full bill below:
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