On July 11, 2026 H.R. 6644 The 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act became law. This bipartisan housing legislation is the first of its kind in over a decade, and it became law without the president’s signature. The first iteration of this bill was introduced in October 2024, “ROAD to Housing Act” which came out of the House and was cosponsored by Chairman French Hill (R-AR) and Chairman Tim Scott (R-SC). There are 12 sections that address a variety of sectors from housing counseling and FHA loans to manufactured homes, community banking, and different studies and reports. Ultimately this bipartisan housing legislation aims to boost housing supply and reduce regulatory barriers, modernize federal programs, address ongoing concerns around large investors unfairly competing with individual homebuyers, enable community banks to deploy more funding, and create incentives and reduce barriers to new home construction.
What changes will homeowners and renters see now that the bill is enacted?
Despite the bill’s length (almost 400 pages) and breadth of housing topics, the “road” to housing does fall short. What is being touted by legislators as a panacea for the housing crisis is lacking in terms of concrete actions and funding mechanisms. From our initial read of the bill, it seems that the enacted legislation has only resulted in a few immediate changes that directly affect renters and homeowners:
- Reforms to Housing Counseling and Financial Literacy Programs: If a homeowner is 30+ days behind on their mortgage payments, they must now be given the opportunity to participate in housing counseling. Our 2026 Statewide Housing Profile indicates that almost 12,000 households faced foreclosure filings in 2025.
- Rural Housing Service Reform Act: This section permanently authorizes a pilot program that decouples Section 521 rental assistance from specific USDA multifamily loans (Sections 514/515/516) so that tenants don’t lose their subsidy when the landlord pays off the loan. With the number of properties reaching loan maturity increasing, this is expected to help preserve the affordability of as many as 330,000 apartments nationwide by 2050. A report released last month by the Housing Assistance Council found that as of March 2026, NC had the most Section 515 properties of any state.
- Housing Unhoused Disabled Veterans Act: Veterans’ disability compensation is permanently excluded from annual income calculations under the HUD-Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing (VASH) program. This is expected to help more veterans experiencing homelessness access housing. The 2025 Point-in-TIme count found that on any given night, more than 750 veterans are experiencing homelessness across North Carolina.
What is missing?
There are no allocated dollars attached to any of the sections in this bill. Additionally, there’s been no word of how federal government agency capacity might be expanded or improved in order to adjust to the program reforms and updates.
What else stands out to us in this bill?
If we consider this legislation from our 4S* framework (Supply, Subsidy, Stability, and Systems – inspired by Shane Phillips’ The Affordable City), this legislation heavily focuses on Supply while also addressing some Systems and procedures. This is a key part in laying the foundation for the broader strategy needed to address our growing affordability crisis.
While there are several promising sections in the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act, none of them come with any appropriated dollars. This does not take away from the significance of this bill, which not only sends a strong message about Congress’ recognition of the importance of housing and housing affordability, but provides a framework for the strategies and policies needed for implementation and impact in the years to come.
In addition to heavy supply side informed interventions, it also reduces barriers and expands eligibility for several programs as well as includes several authorizations for “pilot programs” to explore best practices or improve programs. As our team continues to dive into the various sections of the bill, we’ve also begun reaching out to people across North Carolina’s ecosystem to better understand how the proposed changes or improvements might actually help (or not) on the ground. As we learn more we’ll share these insights, for now here are the sections that stand out to our team the most at the moment:
- Section 107 – Housing Supply Frameworks: A directive that charges HUD with developing best practice frameworks for zoning and land use policies, helping communities identify and overcome barriers to housing development.
- Section 202 – Whole-Home Repairs Act: Authorizes a pilot program that includes grants and forgivable loans to eligible households in order to address home repair needs and health hazards and stabilize aging housing stock in a holistic manner.
- Section 204 – Addition of Affordable Housing Construction as an Eligible Activity: Adds new construction as an eligible activity or use under HUD’s CDBG program.
- Section 212 – Rental Assistance Demonstration Program: Increases the cap for the Rental Assistance Demonstration (RAD) from 455,000 to about 555,000 (an increase of 100,000 units) and codifies tenant protections for those participating in those programs.
- Section 301 – Housing Supply Expansion Act: Updates the federal definition of manufactured housing to include units that are not built on a permanent chassis.
- Section 303 – Property Improvement and Manufactured Housing Loan Modernization Act: Provides updates to mortgage lending standards for manufactured housing through FHA and expands access to financing for housing.
- Section 501 – HOME Investment Partnerships Reauthorization and Reform Act: Reauthorizes the HOME investment partnerships program and updates program requirements by increasing the home purchase price cap from 95% to 110% and expanding household eligibility from 80% AMI to 100% AMI.
- Section 502 – Rural Housing Service Reform Act: – Decouples rental assistance from maturing mortgages that are a part of USDA Rural Housing Service in order to preserve housing in rural areas which will preserve housing access for 400,000 rural families.
- Section 503 – Reforming Disaster Recovery Act: Authorizes the CDBG-DR program for three years and establishes the Office of Disaster Management and Resiliency within HUD to administer the program. Although many state and national advocates called for the permanent authorization of the CDBG-DR program, three years is a start.
- Section 1001 – Homes are for People, Not Corporations: Prohibits large institutional investors from purchasing certain single-family homes to promote homeownership opportunities for American families.
What’s next? Opportunity to submit your questions and concerns.
Keep an eye out for more resources to follow that go deeper into multiple sections of the bill, their potential and anticipated impact on North Carolina, and how our communities and housing ecosystem can and should prepare, as well as what to advocate for next in order to make sure this package actually has the intended impact.
Additional Resources
For a one pager about the bill, click here, or for the full bill text, click here.
For a brief section by section overview from the perspective of the U.S House Committee on Financial Services, click here.
For a view of the votes taken on the bill, click here or here.
Check out the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act Implementation Tracker created by the Bipartisan Policy Center
