On June 16, the Senate passed the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act with a vote of 87-8. Sens. Tim Scott (R-S.C.), chairman of the Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee, and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), ranking member of the committee, along with Reps. French Hill (R-Ark.), chairman of the House Financial Services Committee and Maxine Waters (D-Calif.), ranking member of the House Financial Services Committee, released updated bill text and a section-by-section analysis for the act.
“2026 is the year of affordability, and the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act gives Congress a chance to deliver a major win for families across the country,” Scott said in a release. “This bill is the result of years of work to lower costs, expand housing supply, cut red tape, protect taxpayers and help more Americans achieve the dream of homeownership. … Now it is time to move forward, get this bill across the finish line, and deliver real relief for the American people.”
“The historic 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act will address our nation’s housing crisis by boosting housing supply, bringing down costs, and for the first time ever stopping private equity from buying up homes,” Warren said. “This bill, combining House and Senate priorities, would represent the biggest housing bill in more than 30 years. Let’s get it done.”
“Bipartisan, bicameral legislating is never easy — but progress matters. I appreciate the Senate including a three-year sunset on the [Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery] program and adopting key House priorities including nine community banking bills and the House’s language limiting institutional investors from outcompeting American families in the housing market,” Hill said.
“I’m pleased that after months of back and forth that we have reached an agreement on a comprehensive housing package that will finally get America back to building affordable housing,” Waters said. “While no compromise is perfect, this legislation reflects meaningful progress and incorporates over 50 housing and banking provisions which Democrats fought to secure, but our work is far from done. This is an important step forward, not the final destination.”
Waters noted that the bill fully adopts the House’s solution to “responsibly rein in corporate landlords, banning large institutional investors from purchasing single-family homes but without curtailing critical housing development or evicting families.”
Following the Senate’s passage of the act, National Association of Realtors Executive Vice President and Chief Advocacy Officer Shannon McGahn issued the following statement:
“America’s housing shortage and affordability challenges demand action. The cost of building a new home has increased dramatically, with regulatory costs alone adding more than $131,000 to the price of a new home today. This legislation helps reduce barriers to building, modernize housing programs, and creates more opportunities for homeownership.
“We commend the House, Senate, and administration for their diligent efforts and constructive deliberation on this critical legislation. The strong support in both chambers reflects a growing consensus that America needs more homes, greater affordability and more pathways to homeownership. We are encouraged by this progress and look forward to continuing our work with Congress and the administration to help get this legislation to the president’s desk.”
Section-by-section analysis
The act addresses opportunities for housing, increased development, manufactured housing, program reform, oversight and accountability, studies and reporting, and the role of community banks. Some notable sections include:
- Sec. 101 – Reforms to housing counseling and financial literacy programs: allows the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to review the performance of housing counseling agencies and counselors. If a counselor’s performance falls short, HUD may require additional training and provide opportunities to demonstrate improvement. Counselors found to be consistently out of compliance may be subject to enhanced oversight or lose their certification.
- Sec. 105 – Federal Housing Administration (FHA) small-dollar mortgages: authorizes a HUD pilot program to increase access to small-dollar mortgages with original principal balances of $100,000 or less.
- Sec. 107 – Housing supply frameworks: directs HUD to develop best practice frameworks for zoning and land-use policies, helping communities identify and overcome barriers to housing development.
- Sec. 203 – Community Investment and Prosperity Act: increases the Public Welfare Investment cap applicable to banks supervised by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and the Federal Reserve from 15 percent to 20 percent, which will enhance banks’ capacity to make private investments in affordable housing.
- Sec. 206 – Unlocking housing supply through streamlined and modernized reviews act: right-sizes National Environmental Policy Act review for small and infill housing projects, which will simplify the review process and get projects to construction faster.
- Sec. 207 – Grants for planning and implementation associated with affordable housing: authorizes a pilot program to offer competitive grants to assist state, local and tribal governments with regional housing planning and community development activities.
- Sec. 209 – Accelerating Home Building Act: authorizes a grant program to help communities establish pre-approved housing designs to help streamline and expedite local construction processes and build more homes.
- Sec. 301 – Housing Supply Expansion Act: updates the federal definition of manufactured housing to include units not built on a permanent chassis to encourage innovation and expand naturally-occurring affordable housing. It also ensures that no energy efficiency standards for manufactured housing take legal effect until adopted by HUD.
- Sec. 302 – Modular Housing Production Act: requires the FHA to assess barriers to FHA-insured lending for modular housing and directs the HUD secretary to consider modifying the financing draw schedule to encourage modular housing construction.
- Sec. 304 – PRICE Act: authorizes HUD’s Preservation and Reinvestment Initiative for Community Enhancement (PRICE) Program for seven years to provide grants to communities to maintain, protect and stabilize manufactured housing and manufactured housing communities.
- Sec. 401 – Creating incentives for small dollar loan originators: requires the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to issue a report to Congress studying the effect of various aspects of loan originator compensation on the availability of small-dollar mortgage loans and to assess the barriers they pose to the availability of small-dollar mortgages to consumers.
- Sec. 405 – Choice in Affordable Housing Act: reduces HUD inspection delays by allowing units that are financed through other federal housing programs to automatically satisfy voucher inspection requirements if inspected within the past year. Additionally, the bill permits new landlords to request pre-inspections to increase access to housing and encourage landlord participation.
- Sec. 501 – HOME Investment Partnerships Reauthorization and Reform Act: reforms and reauthorizes the HOME Investment Partnerships Program, making critical updates to improve program administration and facilitate the construction of more affordable housing.
- Sec. 503 – Incentivizing local solutions to homelessness: allows states and localities that receive Emergency Solutions Grant funding to request a waiver of the statutory 60 percent spending cap on emergency shelter beds and street outreach.
- Sec. 602 – Housing Unhoused Disabled Veterans Act: permanently excludes veterans’ disability compensation from annual income calculations under the HUD- Veterans Affairs (VA) Supportive Housing program to help more homeless veterans access VA housing.
- Sec. 603 – VA Loan Informed Disclosure (VALID) Act: improves transparency for veteran homebuyers by requiring FHA mortgage disclosures to include cost comparison information to make veterans aware of their home loan benefits through the VA and help them compare those options to FHA financing, with important privacy considerations.
- Sec. 701 – Requiring annual testimony and oversight from housing regulators: requires the HUD secretary to testify annually before Congress on the department’s operations, oversight activities and program performance.
- Sec. 703 – United States Interagency Council on Homelessness (USICH) oversight: requires USICH to provide an update on the status of the plan to reduce homelessness in its annual planning process and requires annual USICH Congressional testimony, if requested.
- Sec. 801 – HUD-U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA)-VA Interagency Coordination Act: This section directs HUD, USDA and the VA to identify areas for collaboration to streamline and improve housing program implementation.
- Sec. 803 – Improving self-sufficiency of families in HUD-subsidized housing: directs HUD to conduct a study on the implementation of work requirements by public housing agencies, with an assessment of the challenges and benefits of work requirements on public housing agencies and families, including the effects on homelessness, poverty, asset building, job attainment and public housing agency administrative capacity.
- Sec. 903 – Tailored regulatory updates for supervisory testing: raises the consolidated asset threshold from $3 billion to $6 billion for insured depository institutions to qualify for an 18-month examination cycle.
- Sec. 1001 – Homes are for people, not corporations: prohibits large institutional investors from purchasing certain single-family homes to promote homeownership opportunities for American families, not corporations.
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