*** 12/11/25 - Bipartisan housing package left out of new defense bill - Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle nonetheless indicated support for the ROAD to Housing Act + related CRS report
Buzz Sawyer
- The Renewing Opportunity in the American Dream to Housing Act of 2025 is the first bipartisan markup for housing in over a decade. The Senate’s inclusion of it in the NDAA indicates strong interest in addressing housing supply issues on both sides of the aisle. Still, its ultimate exclusion from the Defense authorization bill reflects pushback within the House.
- In a Dec. 7 statement, House Financial Services Chair French Hill, R-Ark., promised to separately address housing, saying, “I share the president’s goals of expanding Americans’ access to housing that fits their needs by reducing regulatory roadblocks to development, increasing housing supply and choice, and strengthening accountability.”
R48732 11/17/2025
By Patricia Kirk November 12, 2025
Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle nonetheless indicated support for the ROAD to Housing Act,
Published Dec. 11, 2025
Dive Brief:
- The House of Representatives passed the 2026 National Defense Authorization Act on Wednesday without the ROAD to Housing Act provisions, which directed HUD to adopt a slew of practices to boost housing supply.
- The Renewing Opportunity in the American Dream to Housing Act of 2025 is the first bipartisan markup for housing in over a decade. The Senate’s inclusion of it in the NDAA indicates strong interest in addressing housing supply issues on both sides of the aisle. Still, its ultimate exclusion from the Defense authorization bill reflects pushback within the House.
- In a Dec. 7 statement, House Financial Services Chair French Hill, R-Ark., promised to separately address housing, saying, “I share the president’s goals of expanding Americans’ access to housing that fits their needs by reducing regulatory roadblocks to development, increasing housing supply and choice, and strengthening accountability.”
Dive Insight:
The Financial Services Committee will advance solutions this month that aim to tackle housing cost and access challenges, according to Hill’s statement. Lawmakers could revive the bipartisan provisions in the ROAD to Housing Act, S.2651, in a standalone bill or add them to another critical legislative package.
“Next year, we look forward to working with our Senate colleagues to send a bill to the president’s desk that reflects the views of both chambers and leads to more affordable choices for America’s homeowners and renters,” Hill said.
S.2651 passed unanimously out of the Senate Banking Committee in late July, with the support of housing industry groups such as the National Association of Home Builders. Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., chairs the committee, and Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., is the ranking member.
According to Warren, in a Dec. 7 statement, the fight to get the ROAD to Housing Act signed into law isn’t over.
“Donald Trump claims he wants to build more housing and lower housing costs, but his allies in the House just axed a bipartisan bill that unanimously passed the Senate to do just that,” Warren said. “If House Republicans continue to block legislation to cut housing costs in 2026, then Democrats will pass it ourselves when we take back Congress.”
NAHB urged the House and Senate to work together to pass a major housing package early next year that increases the nation’s housing supply.
“To help stimulate construction of sorely needed housing, leaders in both chambers of Congress need to agree on a bipartisan bill that improves zoning and land-use policies, single-family housing, multifamily housing, rural housing, and our aging housing stock,” NAHB Chairman Buddy Hughes said in emailed comments to Multifamily Dive.
The bill text incorporates part of at least 27 previously introduced pieces of legislation, most of which had bipartisan sponsorship. Most of the provisions aim to make the process of building housing easier on the local level, with the goal of increasing supply and ultimately easing prices.
Section 208 rolls back the National Environmental Protection Act review process for small and infill housing projects, while Section 202 requires the agency to prioritize grant awards to recipients in opportunity zones
The bill also permanently authorizes HUD’s Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery program, which provides resources to states, tribes and localities to rebuild housing after a natural disaster. Currently, Congress has to reauthorize the program regularly or after a disaster.
https://www.multihousingnews.com/road-to-housing-act-will-it-get-us-there/
Road to Housing Act: Will It Get Us There?
The massive bill aims to boost supply by combining market-based tools with government programs.
Image by Caarlzhang/iStockphoto.comAccording to the Congressional Budget Office, 1.6 million housing starts are needed annually for the next 10 years to meet demand. The Road to Housing Act of 2025 (S.2651), a comprehensive package passed by the Senate in a nonpartisan vote on Oct. 9, aims to address this need while preserving affordable housing units nationwide.
In this section-by-section analysis of the bill, Multi-Housing News, with the help of industry executives, unpacks how this legislation would affect the ability of developers and investors to create more housing and make it more affordable for low- and middle-income families.
LIKE THIS CONTENT? Top Affordable Metros in the U.S.
Section 201: Rental Assistance Demonstration Program (Sec. 201)
Section 201 lifts the cap on the Rental Assistance Demonstration program and codifies tenant protections, providing unlimited rental assistance or maximizing assistance based on the average rent in specific markets
“The cap refers to a statutorily set at 455,000 units for converting public housing authorities and other HUD-assisted property owners to long-term project-based, Section 8 contracts,” said David McCarthy, CREFC managing director & head of legislative affairs for the Commercial Real Estate Finance Council. “This also allows (developers) to use private financing.”
Increasing Housing in Opportunity Zones (Sec. 202)
Section 202 makes it easier for developers of large projects like subdivisions and multifamily projects or housing preservation and construction projects in Opportunity Zones to fund projects by giving them added weight in competition for HUD funding.
“This approach can also ‘stack’ different government incentives such as Opportunity Zone benefits and HUD development grants in order to attract and accelerate private capital,” said Dwight Dunton, founder, CEO & CIO of Bonaventure, a private investor, developer and operator of 22 multifamily projects with more than 4,000 units in the U.S. Southeast.
Housing Supply Frameworks Act (Sec. 203)
Section 203 directs HUD to develop best practices for zoning and land use to help local governments identify and overcome barriers to housing development and modernize outdated rules limiting housing development.
“The goal of the section is to encourage more consistency across jurisdictions and reduce the regulatory burden for developers,” Dunton continued, noting that it doesn’t mandate adoption by local governments, but establishes common language and clear examples of what effective policies look like.
For example, it allows for higher-density housing near transit, streamlines the permitting and environmental review processes, reduces or eliminates minimum parking requirements, increases density, decreases minimum lot sizes and setback requirements, eliminates restrictions on accessory dwelling units and increases by-right uses.
“FHA’s multifamily loan limits have not been raised since 2003,” noted Nicole Upano, Associate Vice President of Housing Policy and Regulatory Affairs at the National Apartment Association.Uniform guidelines would mean developers don’t have to relearn an entirely new set of rules in every municipality, making it easier and faster to build housing, Dunton suggested.
He pointed out that HUD plays many different roles in housing, including loan insurance programs for construction of new apartment buildings and financing for new and existing multifamily properties. “These loans don’t cost taxpayers money, and they actually generate revenue through loan and mortgage insurance fees,” Dunton said.
The challenge is that the construction side of the program is being used at a very small scale, Dunton continued. Last year, for example, there were only only 67 HUD insured construction loans, and for the first 11 months of 2025, just 61, compared to the historical average of 160 per year from 2017 to 2022. “If HUD would remove obstacles to participation, this powerful tool could be deployed much more broadly,” he suggested.
Whole-Home Repairs Act (Sec. 204)
This act establishes a five-year, HUD pilot program to offer grants and forgivable loans to to low- and moderate-income homeowners and qualifying small landlords to address home repairs and health hazards. It’s aimed at stabilizing aging housing stock, preserving affordable units and supporting neighborhood revitalization.
This bill would authorize $30 million from a U.S Treasury program, said McCarthy, noting the eligibility for individual homeowners is based on income. Only landlords with fewer than 10 eligible properties, with a majority of affordable units and no more than 40 total units are eligible. In addition, rental properties must be leased as primary residences and include affordable units.
Community Investment and Prosperity Act (Sec. 205)
This act increases the Public Welfare Investment cap for the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and the Federal Reserve from 15 percent to 20 percent, expanding the capacity of banks to invest in affordable housing.
Build Now Act (Sec. 206)
This act creates a pilot program to incentivize housing development of all kinds in Community Development Block Grant participating local jurisdictions.
However, this provision rewards or penalizes cities by adjusting their Community Development Block Grant funding using a new metric that tracks whether a city is accelerating housing growth, compared to its past performance, and how that progress compares to the rest of the nation, according to the National Association of Home Builders staff.
HUD would be required to annually rank all metropolitan areas by their housing growth improvement rate. This ranking will be used to identify which cities qualify for additional funding and which will face a reduction based on their relative performance. Cities falling short of the national median housing growth rate will lose 10 percent of their CDBG funding. Cities exceeding the national housing growth rate will get additional CDBG dollars funded by CDBG funds lost by cities without improvement.
Better Use of Intergovernmental and Local Development or BUILD Housing Act (Sec. 207)
This act cuts red tape around environmental reviews, empowering states, local governments and Indian tribes to streamline reviews and increase housing development by removing the need for federal-level, environmental reviews.
Unlocking Housing Supply Through Streamlined and Modernized Reviews Act (Sec. 208)
This section right-sizes National Environmental Protection Act review for small and infill housing projects, thereby simplifying the review process and getting projects to construction faster.
This would only apply to federally funded projects, noted Matthew Berger, senior vice president and head of Policy at NMHC, noting NEPA reviews are onerous and costly for the type of projects described in the proposed act. “With a federally funded project that qualifies, the NEPA process would be eliminated and the only requirements at that point would be any local requirements, he added.
Innovation Fund (Sec. 209)
This act sets aside $200 million per year in “flexible” HUD grants from 2027 to 2031 for communities already building housing. It can be used to improve community infrastructure, build housing and supplement water and sewer grants.
Accelerating Home Building Act (210)
This act establishes a HUD-administered grant program to help communities establish pre-approved housing designs, or pattern books, to help streamline and expedite local home construction processes.
Larger projects in Opportunity Zones will get more weight in competition for HUD Funds and will help attract and accelerate private capital, said Dwight Dunton, Founder, CEO & CIO of Bonaventure“This section encourages local jurisdictions to identify designs for a range of housing options that satisfy local building and permitting standards and, therefore, can pass through local approval pathways easily,” pointed out Nicole Upano, associate vice president of Housing Policy and Regulatory Affairs at the National Apartment Association. “This means localities can promote housing designs that meet the needs of their individual communities and make those types of homes more affordable.”
Speaking at a housing conference last week, presented by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Senator Pete Ricketts (R-Neb.), noted that on average, 25 percent of the cost of a single-family home and 40 percent of multifamily projects is the cost for permitting, entitlements, reviews and delays.
Build More Housing Near Transit Act (Sec. 211)
This act amends the Capital Investment Grants program in the Federal Transit Administration to provide an optional increased rating in the Federal Transit Authority’s evaluation process for projects in areas that establish pro-housing policy near public transportation routes.
While this promotes transit-oriented housing production, this Act specifically boosts a proposed project’s justification rating if an applicant documents evidence of pro-housing policies, like reducing parking minimums, establishing by-right development, and raising residential height limits, Upano said.
Revitalizing Empty Structures into Desirable Environments (Sec. 212)
This section refers to the conversion of empty properties—like malls or office buildings, malls or hotels—into new uses such as housing, thereby waking up tired downtowns. It is addressed through the RESIDE Act (see below).
RESIDE Act
This act creates a competitive pilot discretionary program within the Home Investment Partnerships program, providing $1.35 billion in block grants to state and local governments to convert vacant and abandoned buildings into attainable housing.
To qualify for this funding source, buildings need to be zoned for commercial use and declared unsafe by an inspector or subject to court-ordered receivership or nuisance abatement related to abandonment, McCarthy noted. There are no percentage limits on how much of a project could be funded, and its use requirements are all-encompassing, funding acquisitions, demolitions and construction.
The bill lifts the cap on the Rental Assistance Demonstration program and codifies tenant protections. said David McCarthy, CREFC Managing Director & Head of Legislative Affairs for the Commercial Real Estate Finance Council.Housing Affordability Act (Sec. 213)
This act requires the Federal Housing Administration to study multifamily loan limits and then grants HUD rulemaking authority, with FHA input, to adjust those limits to better match housing market costs and enhance affordability.
“FHA’s multifamily loan limits have not been raised since 2003,” noted Upano. “This act would make HUD/FHA funds more accessible to rental housing development and increase predictability and access to affordable funding mechanisms, which means more affordable price points for renters.”
Rural Housing Service Reform Act (Section 503)
This act enacts reforms to the existing Rural Housing Service, including decoupling rental assistance from maturing mortgages, to preserve affordable housing in rural areas.
NAHB staff noted that currently rental assistance is coupled to the property’s original USDA mortgage, so when that mortgage matures or is paid off, the rental assistance automatically ends. Decoupling ensures that when a property’s mortgage matures, the rental assistance stays in place and keeps the property in the affordable housing inventory.
Ricketts introduced a bill that would require HUD and USDA to coordinate environmental permitting, review and inspections, so there is no duplication. “It drags out the time, which drags out the cost,” he stressed. “We’re also doing this with the same sort of idea around infill housing or smaller housing developments.”
Speaking at the same session Senator Tina Smith (D-Minn.) said upward of 380,000 units are at risk. “These (units) are places where seniors live on fixed incomes and (where) people who work in low-wage jobs live,” she added.
New Moving to Work Cohort (Section 504)
This section authorizes a Moving to Work expansion cohort with targeted flexibilities to improve program administration and tenant outcomes.
NMHC opposes this change because it adds time limits or work requirements for residents. Berger noted that the average stay in public housing or Section 8 for able-bodied, head of households is less than seven years as they move onto self-sufficiency.
The time limit contemplated by the administration, however, is two years, Berger continued: “This would be disastrous for families looking for a hand up, which these programs provide.”
He explained that work requirements may prove more bothersome to public housing agencies than to residents because it adds burden to their workloads when studies have shown these tenants already work and, therefore, would be exempt from the work requirements contemplated by the administration.