House Financial Services Committee Passes Housing for the 21st Century Act
Today, the House Financial Services Committee took a significant step in addressing the nation’s housing needs by passing the Housing for the 21st Century Act. This landmark legislation is designed to modernize housing and regulatory policies, increase investment, and create greater efficiencies in the production and rehabilitation of affordable housing.
Some of the key provisions include:
Affordable Housing Expansion: Provides new funding and incentives for the development of affordable housing by increasing the Public Welfare Investment cap from 15% to 20%.
HOME Reform: the HOME Reform Act will streamline and end duplicative environmental reviews, eliminate Build America/Buy America mandates, improve infrastructure, and limit the application of Section 3 of the Housing and Urban Development Act.
Manufactured Housing: The legislation eliminates the requirement that manufactured or modular housing must have a permanent chassis.
With the passage of the Housing for the 21st Century Act by the House Financial Services Committee, the bill now advances to the full House of Representatives for consideration. We are unsure at this time when the House will consider the bill, but we assume it will be shortly after the House returns in January. It has been discussed that the House and Senate may conference on their respective bills in time for a compromise bill to be included with a minibus budget bill or continuing resolution that must be addressed by January 30th. This may be complicated by continuing disputes on the FY 2026 budget and a prospective January vote on extending Affordable Care Act subsidies in the House, spurred by a discharge petition that secured 218 votes earlier today.
We hope to have more clarity on next steps for the housing legislation soon, but in the meantime, we know we will need to advocate for some of our key provisions in the Housing for the 21st Century with Senators. The HOME Reform Act was not part of the ROAD to Housing Act in the Senate, and thus, the exemption of BABA mandates for HOME and the streamlined NEPA requirements must be promoted in the Senate.
We want to thank all our Housing Advisory Group members who heeded our call and advocated for the BABA provision and the PWI cap increase with their Representatives. There were only positive comments on the committee for the PWI cap increase, and despite a mention of the BABA language by Ranking Member Waters, no amendments were offered to strip the language from the HOME Reform Act. We also had numerous conversations with bipartisan Members of the committee, and they mentioned the outreach to their offices, which hardened their support for both provisions.
We have also heard from Housing and Insurance Subcommittee Chair Flood, who wants to work with us on expanding the BABA exemption, which he proposed in the Build Housing More Affordably Act, which did not make it into the final bill. This legislation would exempt all HUD and USDA housing programs from the BABA mandates.
We are very happy to be ending the 2025 legislative calendar on this significantly positive note. It goes without saying that 2025 has been a great year for affordable housing legislation and policy. The Housing for the 21st Century Act and ROAD to Housing Act bring the most significant regulatory reforms in decades and are the culmination of years of education and collaboration with Representatives and Senators of both parties. The $16 billion expansion of the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit is the single largest investment in that program ever.
We have so much more to do to increase the production of affordable housing, and we are making progress on a myriad of issues that will affect supply and demand, and further regulatory reform. All these successes and work would not be possible without your continued support. We thank you and wish you a very happy holiday season and a very Happy New Year.