The 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act passed out of the US House of Representatives on Wednesday, May 20. After several rounds of negotiations in both chambers, it awaits Senate action and the President's signature on its way to becoming the largest step taken to address America's housing crisis since the 2008 Recession.

Throughout the spring, Prosperity Indiana and its members including Intend Indiana, Homestead Resources, and the Northwest Indiana Reinvestment Alliance actively advocated for the bill to include provisions that would ensure that the facilitation of increased supply truly promotes affordability for low- and moderate income Hoosiers and Americans. All nine members of Indiana's House delegation voted in favor of the bill.

"We applaud the House of Representatives on the bipartisan passage of the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act. The House’s decisive passage speaks to the broad and widespread urgency of the nation’s growing housing affordability crisis," said Aspen Clemons, Prosperity Indiana's Executive Director. "This process shows that housing advocates, experts, and legislators from communities across the country did their homework and that collaboration in this environment is still possible to bring forward the solutions our nation needs.”

The bipartisan bill combines 18 elements of the House-passed Housing for the 21st Century Act (H.R. 6644) and the Renewing Opportunity in the American Dream (ROAD) to Housing Act (S. 2651). The bill also adds more than 20 new sections that were not included in either House or Senate housing packages. Included provisions will create new opportunities to construct affordable housing, restore and rehabilitate existing housing stock, and reduce costs in constructing and purchasing homes.

• Allow community development block grant (CDBG) funding to be used for the construction of new affordable housing.
• Streamline inspections for the Housing Choice Voucher (HCV) program, with a goal of helping HCV recipients use their voucher more quickly.
• Create a pilot grant program to help local governments convert vacant commercial or industrial buildings into affordable housing, prioritizing economically distressed areas and Opportunity Zones.
• Remove a HUD requirement that manufactured homes be constructed with a permanent chassis.
• Establish a pilot program for home repair grants to low- and moderate-income homeowners and smaller landlords.
• Raise the cap on bank public welfare investments, such as affordable housing and community development projects, from 15% to 20%.
• Provides grants to local governments and tribes to create and utilize pre-reviewed housing designs to streamline affordable housing construction.
• For a thorough digest of provisions by title, visit the Bipartisan Policy Center.

Prosperity Indiana joined more than 200 national, state, and local housing, business, community development and other pro-housing organizations in a letter to House leadership expressing support for an amended version that resolved challenges regarding investor activity in the market for rental properties, urging its passage without delay.

With the House having passed its amended version, local, state, and national partners have their eyes on the Senate to ensure that the bill heads to the President’s desk for signature. The National Low-Income Housing Coalition encouraged House members to “work with the Senate on a final supply bill that includes purposeful affordable housing priorities to ensure people and communities with the lowest incomes directly benefit from the final bill.”