The Senate Banking Committee unanimously backed a bill on Tuesday packed with dozens of housing-related initiatives, promising a variety of support for owners and prospective homebuyers.
The committee greenlit in a 24-0 vote the Renewing Opportunity in the American Dream to Housing Act. The bill promises financial support for renters, aspiring homeowners and municipalities to build more rental and for-sale properties. The bill focuses primarily on the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development's programs and policies.
Regarding homeownership, the bill makes several promises to:
Boost construction
- Cut "red tape around environmental reviews, empowering states, municipalities and Native American tribes to streamline the process and increase housing development."
- Restructure the National Environmental Protection Act review workflow for small and infill housing projects to simplify the process and accelerate home construction.
- Let the HUD secretary give priority to grant applicants located in Opportunity Zones.
- Ask HUD "to develop best practice frameworks for zoning and land use policies to overcome barriers to housing development."
- Increase the Public Welfare Investment cap from 15% to 20% to "enhance banks' capacity to invest in affordable housing."
- Create "a pilot program to incentivize housing development of all kinds in Community Development Block jurisdictions."
- Establish a competitive Innovation Fund for communities building more housing. It can be used to improve infrastructure, build housing, and supplement water and sewer grants.
- Create a HUD-administered grant program to help communities establish preapproved housing designs.
- Allow transportation projects to receive a higher rating — and improve their chances of getting funding — if the location has pro-housing policies near public transit routes.
Support home repairs
- Ask HUD to "oversee a five-year pilot program offering grants and forgivable loans to low- and moderate-income homeowners and landlords" for repairs and renovations necessary to avoid health hazards.
- Reauthorize HUD's HOME Investment Partnerships program to convert vacant and abandoned buildings into attainable housing.
Revamp mortgage and appraisal practices
- Task the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau with creating regulatory changes to encourage more small-dollar mortgages and loans set at or below $100,000.
- Revise "Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac's uniform residential loan application to inform veterans about their home loan benefits through the Veterans Administration.
- Ensure that veteran homebuyers gain cost comparison information on VA and FHA loans.
- Allow "both licensed and credentialed appraisers to assess properties for FHA mortgage transactions."
- Require lenders to maintain procedures to allow consumers to request a second appraisal if they have an issue with the first one.
Help get more people into homes
- Create a pilot program under the Family Self-Sufficiency Initiative to help homebuyers create and stick to a savings plan for buying a residence.
- Exclude veterans' disability compensation from income calculations to improve their access to housing.
Bolster manufactured home production
- "Update the federal definition of manufactured housing to include modular and prefabricated units not built on a permanent chassis."
- Ask the Federal Housing Administration to modify its lending practices to encourage such construction.
- Update mortgage lending standards for manufactured housing through the FHA and expand access to financing for housing.
- Direct HUD to study the cost-effectiveness of supporting factory-built housing finance options.
- Authorize HUD to provide grants to cities and towns to maintain manufactured housing communities.
The bill moves to the Senate for a vote
"The fact that the median age of a first-time homeowner in America today is 38, that’s almost 40 before you can afford a home," said Senator John Kennedy, a Republican representing Louisiana on the committee. "It hasn’t been that many years ago that the median age was 29. We’ve got a problem."
The proposal has garnered widespread support from housing-focused organizations, from the National Association of Realtors to the Bipartisan Policy Center think tank.
In a letter to the committee chair, Senator Tim Scott, Republican of South Carolina, and ranking member Elizabeth Warren, Democrat of Massachusetts, the NAR hailed the act as a “comprehensive piece of legislation that addresses the full spectrum of housing needs while prioritizing pathways to homeownership for American families.”
In a statement, Ron Terwilliger, founder of the Bipartisan Policy Center's J. Ronald Terwilliger Center for Housing Policy" said, "Many of the bills in this package closely align with the priorities we have identified in our American Housing Act of 2025, showing that Congress can find common ground on an issue that impacts so many."
