Letter on Housing Legislation

To the Members of the United States House of Representatives:

The Chamber appreciates the leadership of both the House and the Senate in their efforts to expand housing supply and improve affordability. We stand ready to work with you to ensure final legislation achieves these goals and delivers more homes for American families.

As the House considers how to proceed with the Senate-passed 21^st Century ROAD to Housing Act, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce urges you to ensure that the final package is focused on increasing supply. Specifically, we ask that through the legislative process, you remove the provision that introduces restrictions on institutional investors in single family housing, as it moves away from the core goal of increasing supply.A cap on institutional ownership - despite these investors owning only about 1 percent of single-family homes nationwide - would not increase supply or lower costs. The principal cause of today's housing unaffordability is the nationwide shortage of an estimated 4.7 million homes. Expanding supply remains the most effective and sustainable way to improve affordability, support workforce mobility, and strengthen local economies. The restriction on institutional investors would do the opposite - it would discourage investment, limit new construction, and reduce access to quality rental housing. Like government price controls, overly restrictive government limits on ownership distort markets and undermine supply.

We appreciate Chairman Hill's leadership on the bi-partisan Housing for the 21st Century Act and its focus on expanding housing supply to improve affordability. We support provisions that incentivize states and localities to adopt reforms to their permitting and zoning rules, streamline costly and time-intensive federal environmental reviews, and update rules related to manufactured and modular housing.

Again, as the House considers next steps on addressing the urgent housing needs across the country, we urge you to keep the final package focused on expanding housing supply by removing the Senate's investor ownership provision; or, at a minimum, by removing the seven-year ownership cap, which would otherwise discourage long term investment and slow the production of new housing.

Sincerely,

Neil L. Bradley
Executive Vice President, Chief Policy Officer,
and Head of Strategic Advocacy
U.S. Chamber of Commerce