The United States House of Representatives is set to pass a housing affordability package that seeks to significantly increase the United States housing supply.
The Housing for the 21st Century Act, introduced by a bipartisan group of lawmakers in December, would expand financing for affordable housing and offer grants for community development activities. The bill was debated on the House floor today, with a final vote due within two legislative days.
“Housing supply has not kept pace with demand, leaving the nation short by as many as 5.5 million units. Rising construction costs, regulatory delays, and outdated zoning constraints have all fueled this crisis,” according to Arkansas Republican Representative French Hill, the bill’s sponsor.
“To address the housing crisis, we must expand supply, including single-family and multifamily homes, apartment complexes, and other factory-built housing. The bipartisan Housing for the 21st Century Act aims to alleviate this shortage by reducing unnecessary regulatory barriers to new home construction, modernising HUD [Department of Housing and Urban Development] programs, and allowing banks to more freely deploy funding.”
The bill would also increase maximum loan limits for the Federal Housing Administration’s multifamily home mortgage insurance programs and would exempt certain housing construction activities from environmental review processes.
It was approved by the House Financial Services Committee by a 50-1 margin in December.
The Senate advanced a similar bill, known as the ROAD to Housing Act, before being passed as part of the annual defence spending package in December.
U.S. President Donald Trump has been pushing Republicans to include a ban on large investors buying single-family homes, per the Wall Street Journal. Hill has reportedly rejected adding this to the Housing for the 21st Century Act.
Trump said in December that he would not support large increases to housing supply, as this would decrease the value of existing homes. “At the same time, I want to make it possible for people to go buy houses,” he said at the time.
