21st Century ROAD to Housing Act

It reshapes major federal housing and banking programs to increase supply, preserve affordable homes, widen access to smaller mortgages, and strengthen accountability. It also limits large for-profit purchases of single-family homes for 15 years.

What the law does ​

• Funds or authorizes home repairs, local housing planning, preapproved designs, commercial-property conversions, manufactured-home community improvements, and long-term disaster recovery.
• Streamlines selected environmental reviews, rural infill development, voucher inspections, and financing for small mortgages, multifamily housing, manufactured homes, modular homes, and accessory dwelling units.
• Expands HOME, rural rental preservation, Rental Assistance Demonstration, housing counseling, appraisal review, and savings opportunities for assisted families.
• Requires housing data coordination, public land databases, zoning and building guidance, program studies, congressional reporting, and stronger oversight of public housing agencies and federal housing programs.
• Excludes specified veterans’ disability benefits from certain housing eligibility calculations and adds VA loan information to standard mortgage disclosures.
• Gives qualifying community banks and credit unions more flexibility while increasing transparency after systemic bank failures and supporting new financial institutions.
• Generally bars for-profit entities controlling at least 350 single-family homes from buying more for 15 years, subject to exceptions, reporting rules, and penalties.
• Generally prohibits the Federal Reserve from creating a central bank digital currency through 2030, with a narrow exception for an open, permissionless, private, cash-like form of currency.

Who it affects ​

• Homebuyers, renters, lower- and middle-income households, veterans, rural residents, older people, people with disabilities, and families receiving federal housing assistance.
• Homeowners, small landlords, manufactured-home residents, public housing agencies, housing counselors, appraisers, lenders, developers, community banks, and credit unions.
• State, tribal, and local governments administering housing, zoning, environmental review, community development, and disaster recovery programs.
• Large for-profit owners of single-family rental homes and their tenants.

Breakdown ​

TITLE I, OPPORTUNITIES FOR HOUSING ​

This title seeks to expand housing opportunities through stronger housing counseling, new building and zoning guidance, streamlined rural infill development, and pilot programs for small mortgages and temperature monitoring in federally assisted housing. It also requires public databases of government-owned undeveloped land and directs federal agencies to study and report on these initiatives while preserving state and local control over building and zoning rules.

Key takeaways

• HUD may review housing counseling organizations and counselor performance, require training or retesting, suspend counselor certifications after repeated failures, and deny renewed assistance to organizations that do not meet program requirements, subject to notice and an opportunity for an informal conference.
• Borrowers who are at least 30 days behind on certain federally backed home loans must be offered available housing counseling, with certain FHA counseling costs paid by the Mutual Mortgage Insurance Fund.
• HUD must issue voluntary guidance for residential buildings of up to six stories that use one internal stairway and may fund pilot projects to test their safety, feasibility, and cost-effectiveness.
• USDA housing assistance for qualifying infill sites is exempt from environmental studies and reports, and USDA must report within five years on effects on review times, administrative costs, and rural affordable housing.
• Community Development Block Grant recipients must maintain searchable public websites identifying their undeveloped land beginning October 1, 2026, and may use grant funds to create and maintain those databases.
• HUD may establish a four-year pilot to support mortgages of $100,000 or less, must establish a three-year temperature-sensor pilot in covered federally assisted rental housing, and must publish voluntary state and local zoning guidance aimed at increasing housing supply and affordability.

TITLE II, BUILDING MORE IN AMERICA ​

This title uses grants, financing changes, and streamlined reviews to increase housing construction, repair existing homes, and convert vacant commercial buildings into housing. It creates or authorizes programs for whole-home repairs, local housing planning, preapproved building designs, and communities that expand housing supply. It also raises federal multifamily mortgage limits, expands and makes permanent the Rental Assistance Demonstration, and ties some community development funding to local housing growth.

Key takeaways

• HUD may favor certain competitive housing grant applications for projects located in or directly benefiting qualified opportunity zones.
• A pilot program through October 1, 2031, would fund home repairs for eligible lower-income homeowners and small landlords, with affordability, tenant protection, accessibility, oversight, and fund-reuse requirements.
• The title permits affordable housing construction to use up to 20 percent of a recipient’s applicable community development grant allocation and raises the permitted level of certain bank public welfare investments from 15 percent to 20 percent.
• HUD must streamline environmental reviews for specified housing activities and may allow states, tribes, and local governments to carry out certain environmental review duties.
• New grant programs support affordable housing planning, communities that increase housing supply, locally preapproved designs for small and midsize housing, and conversion of vacant commercial or industrial buildings into attainable housing.
• The title increases federal multifamily mortgage insurance limits, raises the Rental Assistance Demonstration cap to 555,000 units, makes that demonstration ongoing, and temporarily adjusts certain community development grants to reward stronger housing growth and reduce awards for weaker growth.

TITLE III, MANUFACTURED HOUSING FOR AMERICA ​

This title expands federal manufactured-housing rules to cover homes built without permanent chassis and requires states to treat those homes the same as other manufactured homes. It also seeks to improve financing for manufactured, modular, and accessory dwelling units; directs HUD to study offsite construction and barriers facing modular builders; and authorizes grants to preserve and improve affordable manufactured-housing communities.

Key takeaways

• HUD must create construction, labeling, data-plate, and invoice standards that distinguish manufactured homes built without permanent chassis.
• States must certify initially and annually that they regulate manufactured homes without permanent chassis on equal terms, or prohibit the manufacture, installation, and sale of newly covered homes in the state.
• Federal manufactured-home energy standards have no legal effect until HUD adopts them through its consensus process, and HUD must adopt minimum standards within one year and update them at least every three years.
• HUD must review barriers to FHA construction financing for modular homes, report its findings within one year, and then consider an alternative loan draw schedule through rulemaking.
• The title raises and modernizes federal loan limits for home improvements and manufactured-home purchases, permits financing for accessory dwelling unit construction, and allows loan terms of up to 30 years.
• A seven-year competitive grant program is authorized, subject to future appropriations, for infrastructure, repairs, replacement homes, resident services, and other improvements in eligible affordable manufactured-housing communities, with priority for benefits to lower-income residents and long-term affordability.

TITLE IV, ACCESSING THE AMERICAN DREAM ​

This title seeks to expand access to homeownership, rental housing, savings opportunities, and appraisal services. It requires federal review of barriers to small mortgages, updates appraisal workforce rules, creates a savings pilot for assisted families, and streamlines some housing voucher inspections.

Key takeaways

• The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau must report on mortgage originator compensation and analyze how compensation practices and other barriers affect the availability of federally backed small-dollar mortgages.
• Federal housing regulators must evaluate how federal points-and-fees thresholds affect mortgages with original principal amounts below $100,000.
• The title updates Federal Housing Administration appraiser qualifications, allows certain federal appraisers licensed in one jurisdiction to work nationwide, recognizes trainee appraisers, supports appraisal workforce grants, and permits adjustments to appraisal registry fees.
• The Department of Housing and Urban Development may create a pilot for up to 5,000 assisted families that places rent increases attributable to higher earnings into interest-bearing escrow accounts, with participation protections and specified withdrawal rules.
• Housing voucher inspections may rely on recent qualifying inspections from certain other federal housing programs, and remote or video inspections may be allowed in rural or small areas if they reliably assess housing conditions.
• Public housing agencies may pre-inspect units offered by new landlords and treat a passing inspection as valid if an assisted tenant signs a lease within 60 days.

TITLE V, PROGRAM REFORM (part 1 of 2) ​

This title reforms major federal housing programs administered by the Departments of Housing and Urban Development and Agriculture. It expands and streamlines the HOME affordable housing program, strengthens rural housing preservation and assistance, allows temporary flexibility in certain homelessness funding limits, and creates a structured federal program and fund for long-term disaster recovery. It also adds oversight, reporting, tenant protections, affordability requirements, and deadlines for agency action.

Key takeaways

• The HOME program is continued and revised to serve households earning up to 100 percent of area median income in specified activities, support shared-equity homeownership, permit certain infrastructure spending, streamline environmental reviews, and strengthen inspections and enforcement.
• The rural housing reforms preserve rental assistance during foreclosure, establish a permanent program to preserve and revitalize federally financed rural rental properties, expand voucher eligibility and adjustment procedures, and permit longer or modified loan terms in specified cases.
• The Department of Agriculture may modernize Rural Housing Service staffing and technology, must improve reporting on rural housing programs, and must support studies and reports on loan subsidies, application processing, and technology needs.
• Recipients of certain homelessness grants may request waivers of spending limits for fiscal years 2027 through 2030, but must justify the request, seek public input, and may not receive a waiver if they displace people or their property without offering qualifying housing options.
• The title creates a Long-Term Disaster Recovery Fund and a formula-based disaster recovery grant program focused on housing, infrastructure, economic recovery, and mitigation in the areas most affected by catastrophic major disasters.
• The disaster recovery program requires public plans, financial controls, performance reporting, protections against duplicate benefits, and a general target of at least 70 percent of grant funds benefiting low- and moderate-income people, and the program ends three years after enactment unless Congress establishes a successor.

TITLE V, PROGRAM REFORM (part 2 of 2) ​

This title allows the Department of Housing and Urban Development to create a new Moving to Work cohort of up to 25 high-performing public housing agencies focused on economic opportunity and independence. It limits the program flexibilities available to participating agencies, sets funding and tenant-protection rules, and requires competitive selection, enforcement, research, and extensive public reporting.

Key takeaways

• HUD may competitively select up to 25 high-performing public housing agencies for the new Economic Opportunity and Pathways to Independence Cohort after completing the first required report.
• Selected agencies must meet size limits, represent varied geographic areas, and give priority to agencies serving above-average shares of families with children and youth aging out of foster care.
• HUD may grant only specified existing Moving to Work waivers, may not weaken their safeguards, excludes several waivers entirely, and must make participation optional for residents under two specified waivers.
• Participating agencies may use up to 5 percent of their annual housing-assistance-payment funds for other lawful purposes, and HUD must renew those amounts with an inflation adjustment.
• Agencies must preserve assistance levels and the mix of family sizes served, ensure at least 75 percent of assisted families are very low income, adopt reasonable rent policies that encourage work and self-sufficiency, and maintain housing quality.
• HUD must address noncompliance and replace agencies that cannot comply, while continuing research and publishing annual, searchable reports on tenant outcomes, agency operations, program costs, staffing, and the effects of program flexibilities.

TITLE VI, VETERANS AND HOUSING ​

This title changes mortgage application disclosures and housing eligibility rules to help veterans learn about VA home loans and access housing assistance. It requires a military service question and VA loan notice on the standard mortgage application, adds VA loan information to an FHA consumer disclosure, and excludes specified veterans’ disability benefits from certain housing eligibility calculations.

Key takeaways

• The Uniform Residential Loan Application must ask about military service above the signature line and offer “Yes,” “No,” and “Prefer Not To Answer” as response options.
• The application must tell applicants who answer yes that they may qualify for a VA home loan and should consult their lender about eligibility.
• The Federal Housing Finance Agency must implement the mortgage application requirements within six months.
• The Government Accountability Office must report to Congress within 18 months on whether at least 80 percent of lenders using the application included the required VA home loan notice.
• Specified veterans’ disability benefits are excluded when determining income eligibility for the HUD-Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing program and certain related housing assistance, but they remain part of adjusted income calculations.
• Specified veterans’ disability benefits are also excluded when determining eligibility to rent certain assisted housing built on Department of Veterans Affairs property, and FHA consumer disclosures must include a comparison involving VA-guaranteed or VA-insured loans without requiring lenders to determine a borrower’s VA loan eligibility.

TITLE VII, OVERSIGHT AND ACCOUNTABILITY ​

This title strengthens congressional oversight of federal housing and homelessness agencies through annual testimony and more frequent reporting. It also requires procedures for consumers to challenge home valuations on federally backed mortgages and directs a study of whether to create a public federal appraisal database.

Key takeaways

• The Secretary of Housing and Urban Development must testify annually before House and Senate committees about department operations, housing conditions, mortgage insurance funds, grant oversight, housing and homelessness efforts, and the department’s capacity.
• The Secretary must report monthly to Congress on the Federal Housing Administration mortgage insurance fund’s capital ratio and promptly notify Congress if the fund falls below the required ratio.
• The United States Interagency Council on Homelessness must report annually to the President and Congress on progress and changes to its homelessness plan and must testify before Congress annually if requested.
• Federal housing and mortgage agencies must require lenders offering federally backed mortgages to maintain a process for consumers to request review and resolution of a disputed home valuation or seek a later appraisal.
• The Government Accountability Office must report to Congress within 240 days on the feasibility, benefits, costs, privacy concerns, market risks, and administration of a searchable public appraisal database.
• After the appraisal database report is completed, the relevant House and Senate committees must each hold a hearing on its findings and the feasibility of creating the database.

TITLE VIII, ACCOUNTABILITY, COORDINATION, STUDIES, AND REPORTING ​

This title requires federal housing agencies to coordinate data, streamline joint housing reviews, and report to Congress on ways to improve housing programs. It also orders studies on work requirements, workforce housing, housing for older people and people with disabilities, homes near Superfund sites, and inherited property with unclear ownership. It increases reporting, contract disclosure, and congressional oversight for public housing agencies under receivers or federal monitors.

Key takeaways

• HUD, USDA, and VA must share housing research and market data and identify opportunities to reduce inefficiencies and federal barriers to affordable housing construction.
• HUD and USDA must coordinate environmental reviews and consider joint inspections for jointly funded rural housing projects while preserving resident safety and environmental standards.
• HUD must study the effects of certain public housing work requirements if enough agencies participate for a rigorous study and the research would not harm assisted families.
• The Government Accountability Office must report on housing barriers affecting middle-income households, older people, people with disabilities, residents near Superfund sites, and owners of inherited property with unclear title.
• Public housing agencies under receivers or federal monitors must provide annual status information and publicly disclose key details about their contracts.
• Receivers and federal monitors must report annually to Congress, and HUD’s Inspector General must review covered agencies when requested by a designated congressional committee.

TITLE IX, STRENGTHENING COMMUNITY BANKS’ ROLE IN HOUSING ​

This title changes federal banking rules to give qualifying community banks and credit unions more flexibility in handling deposits, undergoing examinations, holding board meetings, and forming new institutions. It also increases transparency after bank failures involving systemic-risk action, creates mentoring and application support for small and new financial institutions, and requires studies of reciprocal deposits and rural financial institutions.

Key takeaways

• Qualifying banks with less than $10 billion in assets may treat custodial deposits of up to 20 percent of their total liabilities as non-brokered deposits, subject to financial-condition requirements and interest-rate limits.
• The title raises the amounts of reciprocal deposits that eligible institutions may treat as non-brokered and requires the FDIC to study their use, performance, benefits, and risks.
• It raises the asset threshold for certain supervisory examination rules from $3 billion to $6 billion and allows highly rated federal credit unions to hold at least six board meetings per year instead of meeting monthly.
• After a systemic-risk determination involving a failed bank, federal reviewers and banking regulators must report to Congress on the decision, management failures, compensation, regulatory shortcomings, and other contributing factors, while publishing as much supporting material as possible.
• The Treasury Department must establish a mentor-protégé program for small financial institutions, and financial regulators must simplify applications, assign caseworkers on request, support mentorships, and coordinate with states and stakeholders to encourage new banks and credit unions.
• Federal banking agencies may test phased-in capital requirements and business-plan flexibility for qualifying new community banks formed from 2026 through 2028, and agencies must study new bank formation and the condition of rural banks and credit unions.

TITLE X, HOME-OWNERSHIP FOR MAIN STREET AMERICA ​

This title generally bars for-profit entities that control at least 350 single-family homes from buying additional single-family homes for 15 years, beginning 180 days after enactment. It allows specified exceptions, including certain construction, renovation, rental-to-ownership, foreclosure-related, senior-housing, and investor-to-investor purchases. It also creates a federal resource for renters to report disputes, requires investor reporting and renter notices, establishes penalties, and directs federal agencies to study the law’s effects.

Key takeaways

• The purchase ban generally applies to for-profit entities that directly or indirectly control at least 350 single-family homes, while excluding government entities.
• Covered investors do not have to sell homes acquired before enactment, and ownership reorganizations involving those homes remain permitted.
• A prohibited purchase may result in a civil penalty of up to $1 million per violation or three times the property’s purchase price, whichever is greater.
• The Department of Housing and Urban Development must establish a toll-free number and public website to help renters report, track, and resolve disputes involving covered investors.
• Covered investors must notify renters about the federal outreach resource and annually report their controlled-home totals and required location information to the Department of Housing and Urban Development.
• The purchase ban and its penalties take effect 180 days after enactment and expire 15 years later.

TITLE XI, CENTRAL BANK DIGITAL CURRENCY ​

This title generally prohibits the Federal Reserve from issuing or creating a central bank digital currency, either directly or through a financial intermediary. It provides an exception for certain dollar-denominated currency that is open, permissionless, private, and preserves the privacy protections of cash, and the prohibition expires after December 31, 2030.

Key takeaways

• A central bank digital currency is defined as a widely available digital form of U.S. currency, denominated in dollars and issued as a direct liability of the Federal Reserve System.
• The Federal Reserve may not directly or indirectly issue or create a central bank digital currency or a substantially similar digital asset.
• The prohibition does not apply to dollar-denominated currency that is open, permissionless, private, and fully preserves the privacy protections of U.S. coins and physical currency.
• The title does not independently authorize the Federal Reserve to issue a central bank digital currency or a substantially similar digital asset without congressional approval.
• The restrictions in this title cease to apply after December 31, 2030.

TITLE XII, MISCELLANEOUS ​

This title provides that if part of the Act is found invalid, the rest of the Act remains in effect where it can still apply. It also states that the Act does not authorize any additional funding.

Key takeaways

• A ruling that invalidates one provision or application of the Act does not invalidate the rest of the Act.
• Provisions may continue to apply to other people or circumstances even if a particular application is invalid.
• The Act and its amendments do not authorize additional appropriations.