Dive Brief:
- The House overwhelmingly passed a major bipartisan housing package on Monday night by a vote of 390–9. The Housing for the 21st Century Act is designed to expand supply, modernize federal housing programs and expand paths to homeownership.
- Introduced on Dec. 11, 2025, H.R. 6644 is the House’s counterpart to the Senate’s ROAD to Housing Act, the first bipartisan markup for housing in over a decade. It was included in the recent defense bill but ultimately removed by the House last year.
- The legislation now moves to the Senate for consideration. Although there are areas of overlap, there are a number of differences between the two bills that will need to be resolved before heading to the president’s desk.
Dive Insight:
Housing industry groups are supportive of the effort, and the National Apartment Association, National Multifamily Housing Council and Real Estate Technology and Transformation Center released a statement Monday night applauding the move.
“Today’s vote represents historic momentum in Congress for the enactment of real housing solutions,” the groups said. “Our organizations urge the U.S. Senate to pass the ROAD to Housing Act as soon as possible and convene a joint conference to unite around a final housing package that prioritizes lasting and sustainable policies.”
The Housing for the 21st Century Act revises federal housing programs, expanding available financing for affordable housing and providing grants for planning and community development activities. For example, it increases the statutory maximum loan limits for FHA multifamily mortgage insurance programs.
The bill also increases the maximum eligible income for HUD's HOME Investment Partnerships Program and establishes a new grant program to assist regional, state and local entities with strategies to support affordable housing.
Other key provisions include:
- Exempting certain housing projects from the National Environmental Policy Act review process, including certain construction, improvement or rehabilitation of residential buildings. This is not included in the Senate version, however.
- Lifting the public welfare investment cap from 15% to 20%, which would increase banks’ capacity to invest in the Housing Credit.
- Excludeing veterans' disability benefits from being considered as income for purposes of determining eligibility for the Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing program.
- Establishing a pilot program to provide grants to public housing agencies and other owners of federally assisted housing to test the efficacy of temperature sensors to support compliance with temperature requirements.
- Authorizing HUD to conduct performance reviews of organizations that provide housing counseling services.
- Expanding oversight of HUD and public housing agencies, such as by requiring PHAs to post information about contracts on their websites.
Dennis Shea, executive vice president and chair of the J. Ronald Terwilliger Center for Housing Policy at the Bipartisan Policy Center, also praised the vote in a statement shared with Multifamily Dive.
"It’s encouraging to see bipartisan housing legislation continue to advance,” Shea said. “The Housing for the 21st Century Act shows the nation’s housing crisis is no longer a silent problem and that lawmakers from both parties are building real momentum behind practical reforms to expand housing supply and improve affordability, even as work continues in the Senate."
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