The Senate on Monday evening passed the final bipartisan, bicameral version of a housing package that both parties view as key to addressing one of Americans’ top affordability concerns.
The 85-5 vote sends the measure back to the House, which is expected to give it final approval as soon as Tuesday evening and send it to President Trump’s desk.
“The bill we’re passing today sends a clear message to every American struggling to find a place they can afford: Elected leaders understand the problem and are actually doing something to try to solve it,” said Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, the top Democrat on the Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee that crafted the package.
Sen. Tim Scott, the panel’s chairman, said the housing affordability issue is personal for him. Growing up, the South Carolina Republican lived in small rental units in poor neighborhoods where “the American dream just seemed out of reach for so many.”
“Young people today are feeling in a similar fashion that I did then,” Mr. Scott said. “They’re delaying marriage, they’re delaying having kids, they’re delaying, putting down roots – not because they lack ambition, but because housing prices are too darn high and housing supply too low.”
The 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act includes policies designed to increase housing supply and lower the cost of homeownership.
It is a package compiling dozens of individual bills that lawmakers have spent years negotiating. The Senate and House started with different versions and spent months sending the legislation back and forth before settling on this final bicameral deal.
The measure would remove and streamline government regulations that have driven up the cost of home construction, accounting for roughly a quarter of the cost of a new home.
“When you cut red tape, you actually reduce the cost of housing,” Mr. Scott said.
The bill would ban companies with investment control of 350 or more single-family homes from purchasing additional units, codifying an executive order President Trump issued to stop Wall Street investment firms from crowding individual buyers out of the market.
“Congress has never before held private equity accountable for anything, and today that changes,” Ms. Warren said. “No longer will private equity firms come in with an all-cash offer to snap up a house while a family loses out on their dream.”
To address more localized housing issues, the package offers incentives for state and local governments.
That includes a seven-year innovation fund to help communities build more housing supply, as well as pilot grant programs for regional housing planning and for converting vacant and abandoned buildings into housing.
The bill also instructs the Department of Housing and Urban Development to develop zoning and land-use policy best practices that localities can use to help identify and overcome barriers to housing development.
Sen. John Kennedy, Louisiana Republican, offered a ringing endorsement for the policies: “This bill is better than sex.”
