A bipartisan initiative is looking to stimulate housing development by cutting red tape.
It would be an overhaul of legislation that has remained untouched for nearly three decades.
Born from the National Affordable Housing Act of 1990, the HOME program provides funding to municipalities to build affordable residences and offers rental assistance. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development distributes the funds annually. While initially focused on renters, the HOME Reform Act of 2025 would benefit housing developers by scaling back regulations on labor, the sourcing of materials and access to federal funding while streamlining reviews.
Rep. Mike Flood, Republican of Nebraska, and Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, Democrat of Missouri, introduced the HOME Reform Act. The congress members asked for public input in April on what changes stakeholders thought would be helpful to boost the nation's housing supply and access to those homes. The callout initially focused on the HOME program and the Community Development Block Grant, but after receiving 144 responses over the summer and meeting with a total of 24 local politicians, nonprofit leaders, and developers, Flood and Cleaver decided to focus on the HOME program. Once the government resumes, the bill will go before the House Committee on Financial Services.
The theme among the respondents was that there are too many restrictions on accessing federal funding.
“The ability to buy a house is a Main Street issue. The median age now of a first-time homebuyer is 40 years old. That’s affecting everybody,” Flood said. “This is not a red issue or a blue issue. I think this is an American issue.”
The bill would enact several changes to housing development. Among them: It would eliminate the need for an environmental committee review for a historic home receiving public funding. It would no longer require developers to install appliances manufactured in the United States to receive funding from the Build America, Buy America program. It would allow developers of smaller projects (50 units or fewer) to bypass hiring mandates.
“When you lift some of these requirements from projects, developers are more apt to want to use the money to build,” Flood said. “Right now, there’s a lot of developers that shy away from using this money, because they simply don’t want to do the paperwork that comes with all of the stringent requirements.”
The government shutdown has the bill sitting in committee, but housing initiatives should proceed when activity resumes, including on the Senate’s housing-focused ROAD Act bill, Flood said. The Renewing Opportunity in the American Dream to Housing Act 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. It's looking to boost construction by reducing red tape, particularly surrounding Environmental Protection Agency reviews of infill projects; add new grants, including funds for home repairs; create regulatory changes to encourage more small-dollar mortgages and loans set at or below $100,000; and boost assistance to veterans and the development of manufactured housing.
“Right now, there’s not a lot of bipartisan agreement and so to have a bill like this, it’s already sitting on the clerk's desk, is like the best-case scenario. It’s not happening in many other committees,” Flood said.