House Passes Housing for the 21st Century Act in Landslide 390-9 Vote

The U.S. House of Representatives passed the Housing for the 21st Century Act on Sunday in a resounding 390-9 vote, delivering a rare display of bipartisan consensus on housing policy and sending the most comprehensive federal housing reform package in over a decade to the Senate.

What the Bill Does

The legislation, sponsored by House Financial Services Committee Chairman French Hill (R-AR) and Ranking Member Maxine Waters (D-CA), along with Subcommittee leaders Mike Flood (R-NE) and Emanuel Cleaver (D-MO), overhauls several key federal housing programs:

HOME Investment Partnerships Program: Raises income eligibility thresholds to address workforce housing gaps, exempts low-impact rehabilitation and infill projects from full NEPA environmental reviews, and allows grantees without CDBG funds to use HOME dollars for housing-adjacent infrastructure.

Community Development Block Grants (CDBG): Expands eligible uses to include new construction — a significant policy shift. Requires entitlement communities to report on zoning regulations that promote housing and mandates that jurisdictions publish databases of undeveloped publicly-owned land.

Zoning and Code Modernization: Establishes planning grants for regional agencies updating local building codes and funds "pattern books" of pre-approved home designs to accelerate permitting. Directs HUD to produce model zoning frameworks.

Manufactured Housing: Directs a GAO study on a uniform federal building code, revokes the HUD certification requiring manufactured homes include a permanent chassis, and requires FHA to expand loan availability under $100,000.

What It Means for CRE

The bill's CDBG expansion to include new construction opens a funding channel for mixed-use and multifamily developers in qualifying communities. The zoning modernization grants could accelerate entitlements in jurisdictions that have historically bottlenecked housing production through restrictive land-use codes.

For manufactured housing developers and operators, the chassis requirement change and expanded FHA loan access could meaningfully broaden the addressable market for factory-built housing.

More than 70 industry groups endorsed the package, including the National Association of Home Builders, National Multifamily Housing Council, and National Association of Realtors.

What Happens Next

The Senate is expected to consider its own housing package — the ROAD to Housing Act — which differs on several key provisions, including whether CDBG allocations should be tied to housing production metrics. A conference committee will likely negotiate the final version, with supporters pushing for passage before the August recess.