Following the passage of the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act, the National Low Income Housing Coalition (NLIHC) released a resource detailing the impact of the new law on low-income households and the housing supply.

Top priority sections for NLIHC

Section 504: Reforming Disaster Recovery Act (RDRA): Authorizes the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) Community Development Block Grant – Disaster Recovery (CDBG-DR) program for three years and establishes an Office of Disaster Management and Resiliency at HUD. Under the program, states, territories and tribal governments must spend funds proportionately between renters and homeowners; distribute funds equally between housing and infrastructure; ensure 70 percent of funds benefit low-to-moderate (LMI) households; and, prioritize activities that help LMI survivors recover, address pre- and post-disaster housing needs and prepare for future disasters.

Section 502: Rural Housing Service Reform Act: Makes several improvements related to housing programs under the U.S. Department of Agriculture – Rural Development program (USDA-RD) Rural Housing Service (RHS), including:

• Protects rental assistance for rural renters by “decoupling,” or separating Section 515 mortgage financing from rental assistance at USDA-RD properties so that when the mortgages mature, the rental assistance and tenant protections don’t go away.
• Permanently authorizes USDA-RD’s Multifamily Housing Preservation and Revitalization program, which helps owners or purchasers of housing funded by USDA Sections 514, 515, and 516.
• Increases the maximum grant amount for Section 504 – home repair grants for low-income rural homeowners from $7,500 to $15,000.
• Establishes a Rural Community Development Initiative that will provide capacity building grants for organizations in rural areas.
• Modernizes USDA staffing and technology.

Section 405: Choice in Affordable Housing Act: Rental units being rented to households with housing choice vouchers are required to have an inspection completed by the local public housing agency (PHA). This can cause delays for households trying to move into homes. This new policy addresses the possible delays this inspection can cause for moving households in two ways: 1) If the unit has received financing through another housing program and has been inspected in the past 12 months for the purposes of that program, it meets the PHA requirement; 2) If a landlord has not previously rented a unit to a household with a housing choice voucher, they can have an inspection done before their unit is selected by a household.

Provisions impacting housing supply

Section 107: Housing Supply Frameworks Act: Directs HUD to identify best practices in zoning and land use that will result in increased housing supply and develop “state zoning frameworks” and “local zoning frameworks” to assist state and local governments.

Section 203: Community Investment and Prosperity Act: Banks are currently allowed by statute to use 15 percent of their capital and surplus on “public welfare investments.” This provision increases that cap to 20 percent. “Public welfare investments” include investments in affordable housing, including equity investments in Low-Income Housing Tax Credit developments, small businesses, technical assistance, financial literacy, and other community development activities.

Section 204: Addition of Affordable Housing Construction as an Eligible Activity: Allows CDBG recipients to use up to 20 percent of their allocated amount for new affordable housing construction. Currently, CDBG funds can only be used for new construction in limited circumstances.

Section 205: Better Use of Intergovernmental and Local Development (BUILD) Housing Act: Designates certain HUD projects as “special projects,” giving HUD the authority to delegate and coordinate environmental reviews required by the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA).

Section 206: Unlocking Housing Supply Through Streamlined and Modernized Reviews Act: Allows HUD to reclassify certain housing-related activities for purposes of environmental reviews required by NEPA.

Section 207: Grants for Planning and Implementation Associated with Affordable Housing: Establishes a competitive grant program within HUD to award grants to eligible entities (such as state governments, local governments, and regional planning agencies) to assist with planning and implementation activities associated with affordable housing and community development.

Section 208: Innovation Fund: Creates a $200 million annual competitive grant program for five years that can be used for a wide range of activities that support housing and community development. Housing constructed with these funds must be “attainable” as defined by the provision.

Section 209: Accelerating Home Building Act: Authorizes HUD to provide grants to eligible entities to select pre-reviewed designs for mixed-income housing structures with fewer than 25 units. Using these designs can expedite and streamline housing construction. The bill specifies at least 10 percent of authorized funding should be targeted to rural areas.

Section 210: Revitalizing Empty Structures into Desirable Environments (RESIDE) Act: Established a pilot grant program within the HOME Investment Partnerships Program for eligible entities to convert vacant and abandoned buildings, such as warehouses, strip malls, or other buildings, into “attainable” or “mixed-income housing.”

Section 213: Build Now Act: Ties some localities’ CDBG funding to their housing production. The provision would include bonuses for localities that improve their track record on increasing housing supply and small CDBG funding reductions for localities that fail to improve housing growth.

Section 302: Modular Housing Production Act: Directs the HUD secretary to review Federal Housing Administration (FHA) construction financing programs and identify barriers to the use of modular home methods, including financing program features such as construction draw schedules, and to initiate rulemaking to examine an alternative draw schedule for modular and manufactured housing.

Section 501: HOME Investment Partnerships Reauthorization and Reform Act: Reauthorizes the HOME program and makes several reforms related to income restrictions for homeownership activities, environmental reviews, community land trusts, deadline for fund withdrawals, the definition of a Community Housing Development Organization tenant protections and Build America, Buy America requirements.