Hickenlooper Celebrates Senate Passage of Most Consequential Housing Bill in Decades

Bipartisan bill would limit homeownership by large institutional investors, help build more homes

Legislation builds on four Hickenlooper-backed priorities to protect Americans' homeownership from corporations, support housing loans for veterans, boost manufactured housing

Builds on half a billion in federal funding Hickenlooper, Colorado delegation unlocked for Colorado

WASHINGTON - Today, U.S. Senator John Hickenlooper voted to pass the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act, which is the most consequential housing legislation in decades. The bipartisan legislation would help address the national affordable housing shortage by cutting red tape to build more homes, investing in programs to lower the cost of buying a house, and preventing corporations from dominating the housing market.

Hickenlooper fought to include three provisions that he co-sponsors - American Homeownership Act, VA Home Loan Awareness Act, VALID Act, and PRICE Act - to expand housing loan support to veterans and boost manufactured housing.

"Housing shouldn't be out of reach for working Americans. People are holding down two or three jobs and still can't afford their rent or to buy a home," said Hickenlooper. "We need to kick our efforts into overdrive. Let's build more homes, expand loan support to veterans, and ultimately lower the cost of housing for millions of families."

Hickenlooper had helped advance the legislation out of the Senate in October as part of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). However, the bill was not included in the final NDAA signed into law.

Specifically, the legislation would:

• Protect homeownership for Americans, not corporations
  • Builds off of the Hickenlooper-backed American Homeownership Act to restrict large institutional investors from purchasing, directly or indirectly, more than 350 single family homes and undermining the housing supply for working Americans

• Expand housing supply:
  • Cut federal red tape to encourage new construction
  • Direct the Department of Housing & Urban Development (HUD) to develop best practices for zoning and provide grants to help communities create pre-approved architectural designs, known as pattern books, to speed up local permitting
  • Offer incentives to build housing near public transit, give priority to projects in Opportunity Zones (OZ), and create a pilot program to convert vacant and abandoned buildings into attainable housing
  • Establish the "Whole-Home Repairs Act" pilot to offer grants and forgivable loans to low- and moderate-income homeowners and small landlords to fix health hazards and preserve aging homes

• Expand access to capital and homeownership
  • Attract private capital to underserved neighborhoods by increasing Public Welfare Investment (PWI) caps and prioritizing Opportunity Zone incentives
  • Direct the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) and the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) to evaluate and adjust compensation rules and fee caps to encourage lenders to offer small-dollar mortgages
  • Increase accountability by allowing HUD to mandate training for, or revoke the certification of, underperforming housing counselors

• Boost manufactured and modular housing to bring down prices
  • Broaden the federal definition of manufactured housing to include modular and prefabricated units that are not built on a permanent chassis
  • Adopt the Hickenlooper-backed Preservation and Reinvestment Initiative for Communities (PRICE) Act, which would permanently provide grants to stabilize and protect existing manufactured housing communities
  • Direct the FHA to assess barriers to financing modular homes and modernize mortgage lending standards for manufactured housing

• Support veterans and underserved communities
  • Adopt Hickenlooper-backed VA Home Loan Awareness Act, which would help veterans better understand and access loan support
  • Adopt Hickenlooper-backed VA Loan Informed Decision (VALID) Act, which would require the FHA mortgage notice to include comparative rate and fee information about loans available under the Department of Veterans Affairs home loan program to make sure qualified veterans receive loans
  • Permanently authorize the Community Development Block Grant-Disaster Recovery (CDBG-DR) program and create a new Office of Disaster Management and Resiliency within HUD

• Improve federal coordination and oversight
  • Force HUD and the USDA to coordinate on joint environmental reviews for rural housing projects
  • Require the heads of HUD, FHA, Ginnie Mae, USDA, FHFA, and the VA to testify annually before Congress
  • Establish a new Office of the Inspector General for NeighborWorks

Full text of the bill available HERE.

The bipartisan bill has broad support from consumer housing groups, real estate industry groups, and local officials including the US Conference of Mayors.

HICKENLOOPER, DELEGATION UNLOCK HALF A BILLION FOR HOUSING

Hickenlooper has long fought to expand affordable housing. In 2021, he worked with the Colorado delegation to deliver more than $3.8 billion in American Rescue Plan funding for the state, which included more than $500 million towards affordable housing investments and $300 million in emergency rental assistance for low-income households.

Since being elected, Hickenlooper has also fought and secured more than $62 million for 37 specific Colorado projects that help address the housing crisis.

A list of the housing focused projects that Hickenlooper secured funding for is listed below and HERE, HERE, HERE, and HERE.

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