Senate and House leaders from both parties negotiated a joint version of the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act, the most comprehensive federal housing bill in generations that reflects significant advocacy efforts and the housing affordability crisis. The bill retains every provision from the recently amended House version and brings back programs from previous Senate versions that support smart growth initiatives. Now that it passed the Senate, 21st Century ROAD awaits passage in the House before it makes its way to the president’s desk.

On Monday, the Senate voted 85-5 to pass the latest version of the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act, which now heads back to the House for final approval. This comes after last week, when leaders from both chambers and parties reached a deal and released an updated version of the bill. This version largely preserved the recent House version, barring a few technical edits. Leaders also restored modified versions of key provisions from previous Senate revisions that had been removed in the House. Provisions strengthen the following smart-growth-oriented programs:

• Rental Assistance Demonstration (RAD) Program: The joint version of the bill includes a provision to increase the funding cap on the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) RAD program. Increased funding will allow 100,000 more public housing units to be converted to project-based rental assistance managed by local housing authorities under contract with the federal government, expanding access to private and public capital that helps preserve affordable housing units and ensures they remain livable.
• Reforming Disaster Recovery Act: This provision will create a new Office of Disaster Management and Resiliency at HUD and reauthorize its Community Development Block Grant-Disaster Recovery (CDBG-DR) program for the next three years. The CDBG-DR program offers flexible funding for housing and transportation infrastructure development as part of disaster prevention and recovery efforts, including the construction of new housing away from floodplains. This amendment to the program would also streamline disaster recovery funding within the agency, ensuring communities can quickly rebuild after disasters.
• Build Now Act: This provision would incentivize communities with limited housing stock to build housing at a faster rate than the national median by either providing bonus funding or reducing the amount they receive from Community Development Block Grants.
• Preservation and Reinvestment Initiative for Community Enhancement (PRICE) Act: This provision authorizes the PRICE competitive grant program for seven years. This program provides grant funding to improve manufactured housing communities by renovating existing units, increasing the number of housing units, and adding community services. Last fiscal year, PRICE received no federal funding.

Along with these additions, the extremely controversial provision that concerns large institutional investors’ ability to buy and own housing units remains the same as in the previous House version. This joint version retains their ability to buy and own build-to-rent and renovate-to-rent housing, among other specific housing types, ensuring that they can continue to invest capital towards expanding housing supply.

At this stage, getting the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act passed in both chambers and signed by the president is critical to building desperately needed housing of different types and price points tailored to each community’s needs. The smart-growth provisions in the bill will also help ensure that new housing helps create more connected communities. 

Smart Growth America and our partners have spent months working closely with Congress to develop this legislation, and constituent voices are now critical to getting this landmark bill over the finish line. Stay tuned for updates and actions you can take to ensure the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act becomes law.