Senate Passes Bipartisan Housing Legislation

The U.S. Senate today passed its bipartisan housing package, the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act, by a vote of 89 to 10.

The legislation was sponsored by Senate Banking Committee Chairman Tim Scott and Ranking Member Elizabeth Warren, and includes provisions authored by many of the Committee’s members to help increase housing supply and bring down costs.

“By modernizing federal housing programs, reducing unnecessary barriers to development, and opening up new private investment to support construction and preservation of housing, including through the Low Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC), the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act can help to expand our housing supply and make housing more affordable for families across the country,” said Sarah Brundage, President & CEO of the National Association of Affordable Housing Lenders (NAAHL). “Today’s vote reflects strong, bipartisan commitment to tackling our nation’s housing shortage. We urge Congress to move swiftly to get bipartisan legislation signed into law so that lenders and housing providers can get to work building and preserving the housing we need.”

The 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act shares many provisions with the House-passed bipartisan housing bill, the Housing for the 21st Century Act. The Senate’s bill includes revisions to the housing package the Senate passed last fall, including adding additional provisions from the House-passed housing bill, as well as a provision limiting large institutional investors from purchasing single-family homes, which is a priority for President Trump.

The Senate-passed bill includes provisions to:

• Increase banks’ public welfare investment (PWI) cap, opening up the opportunity for more private investment in affordable housing;

• Update and reauthorize the HOME Investment Partnerships program;

• Modernize rural housing programs and provide a path to preserve hundreds of thousands of affordable rural units;

• Cut red tape and streamline environmental reviews for homes constructed with funds from the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD); and

• Authorize the primary long-term disaster recovery program, the Community Development Block Grant-Disaster Recovery (CDBG-DR) program. 

For a comparison of the provisions included in the House- and Senate-passed housing bills, see NAAHL’s comparison chart.

The legislation now moves to the House for consideration before it can be signed into law by the President. NAAHL has repeatedly called on Congress to pass bipartisan housing legislation containing key provisions such as raising the PWI cap, and continues to encourage swift passage.