Senate Passes Reed-Backed Bill to Lower Housing Costs & Increase Supply of Affordable Homes

WASHINGTON, DC - Today, the U.S. Senate passed the most significant housing legislation in nearly two decades with an overwhelmingly bipartisan vote of 85-5.

U.S. Senator Jack Reed (D-RI) lauded the Senate's passage of the 21^st Century ROAD to Housing Act as a key tool to lower housing costs and increase the supply of affordable homes for Americans. Next, the U.S. House of Representatives must pass the bill before sending it to the president's desk to be signed into law.

The bipartisan bill, backed by Senator Reed, will expand and preserve the supply of affordable homes and apartments, streamline costly and time-consuming regulations, increase homeownership, and lower housing costs. It seeks to help keep more homes in the hands of local communities by banning large investors from buying up hundreds or thousands of homes for the first time. Additional measures in the bill will enable homeowners to more easily and affordably revamp aging houses, make housing production programs more impactful, and help localities cut through red tape to bring down housing costs.

Senator Reed says the landmark housing legislation reflects years of bicameral and bipartisan work to address the nation's housing affordability crisis.

"The Senate's passage of the 21^st Century ROAD to Housing Act is great progress in our fight to lower housing costs, build more affordable homes, and boost homeownership. This legislation builds on the over $3.2 billion I have delivered for Rhode Island since 2020 to increase the supply of affordable homes by smartly cutting through red tape and streamlining zoning and permitting requirements," said Senator Reed, a leading champion for affordable housing in Congress. "There is more we must do on affordable housing, like my proposal to repurpose ICE's slush fund to build more housing. We need more bipartisan solutions to ensure all Americans can afford a decent place to live. But today represents a big first step to incentivize smart development, boost housing production, and advance commonsense reforms to lower costs for consumers."

Senator Reed's bipartisan provisions featured in the bill include the Property Improvement and Manufactured Housing Loan Modernization Act (S.964) with Sen. Cynthia Lummis and the Helping More Families Save Act (S.970) with Sen. Katie Britt, as well as other key initiatives he championed as a member of the Senate Banking Committee.

The current median sale price of a house in Rhode Island is $500,000, according to the Rhode Island Association of Realtors.

A few of the key provisions in the 21st Century Road to Housing Act would:

• Provide technical assistance and competitive grants to help communities streamline zoning and permitting and build more housing.
• Prevent large institutional investors from outbidding families for single-family homes.
• Lower borrowing costs for the construction of accessory dwelling units and increase borrowing limits for home property improvement, manufactured housing, and multifamily loans.
• Help more HUD-assisted families save for their financial future.
• Authorize the CDBG-DR program, which provides funding after disasters to cover emergency housing and economic development needs.
• Cuts red tape that delays and increases costs for federally-funded housing developments.
• Boost investment in cost-effective housing options, such as factory-built homes.
• Reduce appraisal shortages, improve consumer engagement, and enhance appraisal quality.
• Promote housing opportunities for veterans.

Senator Reed praised the bipartisan leadership of Banking Committee Chairman Tim Scott (R-SC) and Ranking Member Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and noted that the bill includes a range of different housing tools and solutions to address housing affordability.

The bipartisan measure has strong backing from a diverse coalition of stakeholder organizations across the country, including the U.S. Conference of Mayors; the National Association of Realtors; the National Low Income Housing Coalition; the National Alliance to End Homelessness; the National NeighborWorks Association; and Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC).

The text of the bill can be found here and a section-by-section summary of the legislation is here.

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