Vote Expected This Week on Amended Bipartisan “21st Century ROAD to Housing Act,” Including Updated Disaster Recovery Provision

By Libby O’Neill, NLIHC Senior Policy Analyst and Meghan Mertyris, DHRC Senior Policy Analyst 

The House and Senate are expected to hold a vote this week on the amended “21st Century ROAD to Housing Act” (S.Amdt.5823/H.R.6644). The Senate voted 84-8 last week to advance the bill, showing strong bipartisan support for the bill’s enactment. The bill includes 59 provisions related to housing supply, disaster recovery, manufactured housing, mortgage financing, rural housing, veterans’ housing, and community banking. A press release from the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs states that the bill reflects a bicameral agreement between the leaders of the Senate Banking Committee and the House Financial Services Committee (HFSC). NLIHC thanks leadership in both chambers—Senate Banking Committee Chair Tim Scott (R-SC), Ranking Member Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), HFSC Chair French Hill (R-AR), and Ranking Member Maxine Waters (D-CA)—for their ongoing work in negotiating this broad, bipartisan housing package. 

The bill includes an amended version of “Section 504: Reforming Disaster Recovery Act,” with an authorization of three years. Aside from the three-year authorization, the content of the "Reforming Disaster Recovery Act” (RDRA) remains identical to its previously introduced stand-alone version. This bill will authorize HUD's Community Development Block Grant - Disaster Recovery (CDBG- DR) program, which provides flexible grants to help presidentially declared disaster areas rebuild affordable housing and other infrastructure, carry out mitigation and resilience activities, and make critical reforms to ensure a more efficient and equitable disaster recovery system. 

While a three-year authorization is a compromise, the passage of the RDRA is a substantial victory for NLIHC and its Disaster Housing Recovery Coalition (DHRC) who assisted in writing the bill and advocated its passage for years. The DHRC will continue to push for permanent authorization, which will be significantly more politically palatable now that the program has been authorized with this legislative success. 

The bill also includes the following NLIHC priorities and several others that would impact low-income renters and homeowners:  

• The “Rural Housing Service Reform Act,” (Sec.502) 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” (Sec. 405) 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.   

In addition, the “21st Century ROAD to Housing Act” includes two provisions that NLIHC is concerned about: increasing the unit cap for the Rental Assistance Demonstration (RAD) program (Section 212); and expanding the Moving to Work (MTW) Demonstration (Section 505). Although NLIHC does not support these provisions, they do contain guardrails that address our main concerns. NLIHC has opposed RAD expansion and raised concerns about the enforcement of tenant protections at properties that have converted through RAD. The provision provides HUD with additional tools to monitor and enforce tenant protections, which is a step toward addressing NLIHC’s concerns. NLIHC has also opposed the expansion of the MTW program, as the programs allow public housing agencies (PHAs) that are part of the demonstration the option of implementing policies and practices harmful to residents. The bill provision would explicitly prohibit the new Cohort-specific PHAs from imposing work requirements, time limits, or significantly increased rents.   

A final vote on the bill in the Senate is expected as soon as today, with a vote in the House as soon as tomorrow, June 23. NLIHC urges Congress to pass the amended “21st Century ROAD to Housing Act” that includes the “Reforming Disaster Recovery Act,” “Rural Housing Service Reform Act,” and provisions from the “Choice in Affordable Housing Act.” If passed, the “21st Century ROAD to Housing Act” would be the largest bipartisan housing supply bill enacted in decades and would be a step forward in addressing the nation’s affordable housing crisis.  

Take Action 

With Congress poised to pass the "21st Century ROAD to Housing Act" in the coming days, NLIHC is calling on lawmakers to ensure our priorities remain in the final bill: 

• The “Reforming Disaster Recovery Act” 
• The “Rural Housing Service Reform Act" 
• Provisions from the “Choice in Affordable Housing Act” 

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