U.S. House of Representatives Releases Text of Amended “21st Century ROAD to Housing Act”; House Vote This Week

By Libby O’Neill, NLIHC Senior Policy Analyst 

The U.S. House of Representatives released on May 14 an amended version of the “21st Century ROAD to Housing Act,” a broad, bipartisan housing package aimed at addressing the national shortage of affordable housing. The bill includes 57 provisions related to housing supply, manufactured housing, mortgage financing, rural housing, veteran housing, and community banking.  

NLIHC welcomes the release of the House’s amended version of the “21st Century ROAD to Housing Act” as a positive step towards enacting a final bipartisan housing supply bill and urges the House to pass the amended bill as quickly as possible. 

Lawmakers in both chambers should come together to negotiate and enact a final bipartisan housing supply bill that includes provisions supporting households with the most urgent affordable housing needs, including the following NLIHC top priorities: 

• The “Reforming Disaster Recovery Act” (RDRA) contains critical reforms to help ensure HUD’s Community Development Block Grant–Disaster Recovery (CDBG-DR) program, the federal government’s long-term disaster recovery program, better serves disaster survivors with the lowest incomes, including by better targeting recovery resources to extremely low-, low-, and middle-income survivors, coordinating data sharing, research, and oversight, and encouraging communities to undergo mitigation and resiliency efforts.  NLIHC’s Disaster Housing Recovery Coalition (DHRC) led a letter signed by over 500 organizations calling on Congress to enact the RDRA. 

• The “Rural Housing Service Reform Act” would help preserve affordable rental and homeownership opportunities for low-income people and families living in rural areas, reduce administrative barriers, and encourage public-private partnerships to increase investment in the country’s rural housing supply. Importantly, by decoupling rental assistance from maturing mortgages, the bill would help preserve affordable housing in rural areas and maintain housing access for 400,000 rural families.   

• The bill also includes two provisions from the “Choice in Affordable Housing Act” related to streamlining inspections for the HCV program, reducing inspection delays and permitting new landlords participating in the program to request pre-inspections, making it faster and easier for HCV recipients to access housing.”   

Over the past year, both the House and Senate have been working on a housing package, alternately releasing bills and subsequent amendments. The first version was the Senate’s “ROAD to Housing Act” (S. 2651), which passed the Senate in October 2025 (see Memo, 10/14/25).  The House countered with the “Housing for the 21st Century Act” (H.R. 6644), which had some overlap with the Senate’s bill, and passed the House in February 2026 (see Memo, 2/13).  The Senate then released an amended version of the “ROAD to Housing Act,” now called the “21st Century ROAD to Housing Act” (H.R. 6644/S.Amdt. 4308), which pulled in some provisions from the House bill, and passed the Senate in March (see Memo, 3/23).  

The House’s amended “21st Century ROAD to Housing Act” includes six provisions derived from bills that NLIHC has endorsed:  

• Section 202 – Whole-Home Repairs Act establishes and funds at $30 million a five-year pilot program for home repair grants to low- and moderate-income homeowners, and forgivable loans to qualifying small landlords. 
• Section 301 – Housing Supply Expansion Act would remove a HUD requirement that manufactured homes be constructed with a permanent chassis, lowering the cost of production and expanding design and location possibilities. 
• Section 405 – Choice in Affordable Housing Act would help streamline inspections for the Housing Choice Voucher (HCV) program, helping HCV recipients use their voucher more quickly. 
• Section 501 – HOME Investment Partnerships Reauthorization and Reform Act would make several reforms to the program, including streamlining environmental reviews, increasing the minimum income requirement for homeownership activities, and making community land trusts (CLTs) eligible for HOME funding.  

  • There is a change in this provision from previous versions related to Build America, Buy America (BABA) requirements. The previous version would have exempted activities under the HOME program from complying with BABA; the new version would require a review of implementation, updated guidance on the application of BABA with respect to HOME, and a report on this review and guidance.  

• Section 502 – Rural Housing Service Reform Act would provide much-needed reforms to U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) rural housing programs, including ensuring continued rental assistance for rural tenants in properties with matured mortgages, making Section 515 properties easier for nonprofits to acquire, and streamlining processes to better serve rural communities.  

  • Notably, the House’s previous version of this provision did not include reforms that would ensure continued rental assistance for tenants in properties with matured mortgage. This reform is a top priority for NLIHC. 

• Section 503 – Incentivizing Local Solutions to Homelessness Act would allow for greater flexibility in how communities can use Emergency Solutions Grant funding to address the needs of people experiencing unsheltered homelessness. 
• Section 602 – Housing Unhoused Disabled Veterans Act would help more veterans experiencing homelessness access housing opportunities through the HUD-Veteran Affairs Supportive Housing (HUD-VASH) program. 

The amended House bill does not include the Reforming Disaster Recovery Act, a top priority for NLIHC, which is included in the Senate package.   

In addition, the bill does not include provisions from the Senate’s bill related to the Rental Assistance Demonstration (RAD) program and the Moving to Work (MTW) program; NLIHC was concerned about these provisions and worked closely with the Committee to ensure tenant protections were preserved.   

The amended House bill includes a new Section 1001 – “Homes are for People, not Corporations.” This is a significantly revised version of a provision with the same name in the latest Senate bill. More details about the Senate provision can be found in NLIHC’s explainer. Since the passing of the Senate bill, media outlets have reported that advocates and lawmakers had concerns with specific portions of the provision, particularly the rule that would require institutional investors that develop “build-to-rent” single-family homes to sell those homes to individual homebuyers within seven years, known in the provision as “disposal requirement.” The amended provision does not include the disposal requirement, so if passed, institutional owners of build-to-rent single-family homes would not be required to sell them to individual homebuyers at any point.  The amended provision also explicitly exempts developments financed by the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) program. Among several other changes, the amended provision includes a “renter outreach resource,” a toll-free number that renters in properties owned by institutional investors can call to raise disputes and other information.  

The House bill may go to the House floor for a vote as soon as this week; the bill may receive a vote “under suspension of the rules,” meaning debate time would be limited, no amendments would be allowed, and a two-thirds majority would be required to pass the bill in the chamber.  

The House bill still differs significantly from the Senate’s most recently amended bill. If the two chambers are unable to agree on which version to pass, the bill could go to a conference committee, during which the House and Senate come together to reconcile the differences between the two bills and reach an agreement on final text that would pass both chambers. 

Take Action!   

As Congress continues its work on a final bipartisan housing supply bill, NLIHC urges lawmakers to pass a housing package that includes provisions that serve renters with the greatest needs, including:  

• The “Reforming Disaster Recovery Act,” which contains critical reforms proposed by NLIHC’s Disaster Housing Recovery, Research, and Resilience Coalition (DHRC) to help ensure the federal government’s long-term disaster recovery program, HUD’s Community Development Block Grant–Disaster Recovery (CDBG-DR) program, better serves disaster survivors and disaster-impacted communities with the lowest incomes.  
• The “Rural Housing Service Reform Act,” which would help preserve affordable rental and homeownership opportunities for low-income people and families living in rural areas, cut red tape, and encourage public-private partnerships to increase investment in the country’s rural housing supply. Importantly, by decoupling rental assistance from maturing mortgages, the bill would help preserve affordable housing in rural areas and maintain housing access for 400,000 rural families.  
• Provisions from the “Choice in Affordable Housing Act” related to streamlining inspections for the Housing Choice Voucher (HCV) program to make it faster and easier for HCV recipients to access housing in communities of their choice.   

Use NLIHC’s Take Action page to contact your members of Congress and urge them to include these vital policies in any final bill!