Senate Passes Kelly-Backed Bill to Boost Affordable Housing and Lower Costs

Yesterday, Arizona Senator Mark Kelly voted to pass the 21^st Century ROAD to Housing Act, bipartisan legislation to build more homes, bring down housing costs, and expand affordable housing options for families across Arizona and the country. The bill includes Kelly-backed provisions to support manufactured housing by eliminating the costly permanent chassis requirement, cut red tape that slows construction by simplifying National Environmental Protection Act (NEPA) reviews for small and infill housing projects, and crack down on large institutional investors buying up single-family homes and pricing working families out of the housing market.

"Housing costs are too high in Arizona, and families need solutions now," said Kelly. "That's exactly what we're delivering. This bipartisan effort will build more homes, support manufactured housing, and remove unnecessary barriers that make it harder and more expensive to get affordable housing built. It's an important step toward bringing down rent and making homeownership more attainable."

The 21^st Century ROAD to Housing Act also includes several provisions to support manufactured housing, including the Kelly-backed Housing Supply Expansion Act, which modernizes the federal definition of manufactured housing to include units not built on a permanent chassis. A major priority of affordable housing advocates, this provision will encourage innovation in manufactured housing, ease zoning constraints, and lower housing costs.

The bill is supported by a wide range of state and local officials, housing and consumer advocacy groups, industry associations, and civil rights organizations.

As Arizona families face rising rents, increased home prices, skyrocketing utility costs, and higher construction expenses, Kelly has pushed for policies that lower costs by increasing housing supply. He introduced the HOPE for Homeownership Act to crack down on hedge funds and other institutional investors driving up costs in the single-family housing market, introduced the More Homes on the Market Act to incentivize more homeowners to sell and increase the number of available homes on the market, and pressed the Trump administration to pursue policies that would lower housing costs for Arizona families and abandon the chaotic tariff schemes that are just making it more expensive to build new homes.

Background:

The 21^st Century ROAD to Housing Act is built around four core pillars:

• Cutting red tape
• Unlocking housing supply
• Lowering costs for families
• Including no new mandatory federal spending

The bill streamlines environmental reviews, modernizes manufactured housing rules, unlocks private investment, updates multifamily financing tools, streamlines construction activities across programs, and limits certain large institutional investors from crowding out families in residential markets.

The 21^st Century ROAD to Housing Act lowers costs by increasing supply, empowering local communities, and protecting taxpayers, proving that Congress can solve big problems by addressing housing affordability concerns with common sense solutions.

Click here to read the bill text and click here for a section-by-section.