The House Financial Services Committee on Wednesday voted to advance bipartisan housing legislation, a step toward enacting new policies designed to boost housing supply and ease the affordability crisis that has afflicted the nation.
The committee voted 50-1 to move forward with the Housing for the 21st Century Act, legislation that was first introduced by Committee Chairman Rep. French Hill (R-AR) last week after another bipartisan housing bill, passed by the Senate, was excluded from the final text of the must-pass National Defense Authorization Act, which negotiators had hoped would be the legislative vehicle to get it to President Donald Trump’s desk.
Rep. Ralph Norman (R-SC) was the sole no vote on the bipartisan housing bill.
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“If you’re watching from home, hold onto your bootstraps, today is a big day, you’re gonna actually see members on both sides of the aisle work on a topic,” Rep. Brian Steil (R-WI) said during the meeting to advance the legislation. “This is like cats and dogs coming together, this is the Christmas truce of 1914.”
The legislation comes after the ROAD to Housing Act, which was passed out of the Senate Banking Committee unanimously in July and later passed by the whole Senate, was essentially scuttled after being left out of the NDAA.
The new Housing for the 21st Century Act legislation is designed to be a new jumping-off point for bipartisan housing policy on Capitol Hill.
Housing is a key issue right now for consumers, as inflation has plagued households in recent years. It has become more difficult for people to buy homes, thanks to higher prices driven by a lack of supply. The bill is designed to relieve some of the burden.
The Housing for the 21st Century Act contains a provision that would overhaul the HOME Investment Partnerships Program, a major housing program administered by the Department of Housing and Urban Development. That was not in the Senate’s Road to Housing legislation.
The provision’s authors, Reps. Mike Flood (R-NE) and Emanuel Cleaver (D-MO), say it would modernize and strengthen the program, which provides about $1.25 billion a year in block grants to states and cities to provide affordable housing.
The legislation would provide greater flexibility for governments in allocating funding under the program, which was created in 1990 as part of a broader shift in housing policy toward giving more responsibility to states and cities. It would also provide relief from federal environmental rules that slow down projects.
The legislation also addresses modular homes, which can be produced more cheaply than traditional homes. The bill includes a provision for HUD to change its building codes for modular construction techniques and manufactured housing.
“So by putting modular, which is very resilient and very good on energy efficiency, into that code, I think that produces more affordable housing,” Hill said during an interview with the Washington Examiner, previewing the legislation last week.
Some key reforms from the Senate’s Road to Housing bill were left out of the House bill, though — for example, a pilot program to incentivize localities to remove barriers to housing development by giving them extra Community Development Block Grant funding.
The Housing for the 21st Century Act also leaves out one new grant program for localities that increase housing supply, and another provision that would steer more funding to cities that make it easier to build near transit.
Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA), the ranking member on the committee, offered an amendment that would authorize more federal spending on housing, although it was withdrawn after some debate. Rep. Richie Torres (D-NY) spoke in favor of the amendment, saying that deregulation alone isn’t enough to address the housing problems that the U.S. faces.
“The federal government has a proven track record of creating housing for the middle class, for the working class, and we need to revive that robust federal role in the 21st century,” the congressman said.
Flood, though, pointed out that the legislation is bipartisan and infusing it with federal spending would imperil its ability to be passed by the House.
“As it stands, this legislation is delicately negotiated and it’s been a project that both Republicans and Democrats could come together on,” said Flood.
The House bill also directs HUD to promote “point-access block” buildings, which are buildings accessible by just one stairwell. Such a reform has been sought by many urbanists.
Such buildings are effectively prohibited throughout much of the country because of model building codes that most cities use — despite being popular in other countries. Typically, apartment buildings in the U.S. are mandated to have two stairwells for egress in case of fire, which some designers have blamed for forcing awkward construction choices and making it harder to build small-scale multifamily.
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An amendment by Torres, which was accepted by the panel, raises the height limit for such buildings in the bill from five stories to six stories.
“A six-story height limit for single stair housing is consistent with international norms and strikes the optimal balance between cost efficiency and safety,” Torres said.
