THOMPSON APPLAUDS PASSAGE OF LANDMARK HOUSING BILL, URGES PRESIDENT TO SIGN IT INTO LAW

Washington, D.C. – Rep. Mike Thompson (CA-04) voted “yes” to pass the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act (H.R. 6644), a landmark bill that that will help increase the supply of affordable housing, streamline the process of building more homes, and modernize outdated programs to help create more pathways to homeownership and bring much-needed relief to renters. The bill passed both chambers of Congress with bipartisan support, but now faces opposition from the President who canceled the signing ceremony this morning. 

“The 21^st Century ROAD to Housing Act will help us build more housing, lower mortgage and rental costs, and expand home ownership. The President should sign it into law now,” said Thompson. “This is a huge first step in tackling our housing crisis in the United States and especially in California. I was proud to support this historic bipartisan legislation and I will continue fight to get this signed into law because Americans deserve relief.” 

BACKGROUND

The 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act is the result of extensive negotiations across the aisle and the Capitol and is the most significant housing package in a generation. H.R. 6644 includes dozens of bipartisan provisions to build new housing, lower mortgage and rental costs, expand homeownership, modernize federal housing programs, prioritize homebuyers and renters over corporate landlords, and support community bankers that finance affordable housing development and mortgages.

Specifically, the bill does the following: 

Housing Supply and Development

• Encourages office-to-housing and commercial-to-residential conversions.
• Creates grant programs to help local governments build more housing.
• Streamlines environmental and permitting reviews for certain housing projects.
• Allows certain federal grants to support affordable housing construction directly.
• Continues federal rental assistance for residents of certain rural affordable housing properties, helping preserve affordability and housing stability in rural communities.
• Helps low- and moderate-income communities recover from major disasters.

Manufactured and Modular Housing

• Encourages more factory-built housing production.
• Directs the federal Housing and Urban Development agency to review barriers to modular housing financing and construction.
• Increases federal loan limits for manufactured housing. 
• Provides grants to manufactured housing communities, like mobile home parks, to preserve affordability, address infrastructure needs, and expand homeownership opportunities.

Homeownership and Mortgage Access

• Creates a federal pilot program for small-dollar mortgages under $100,000 to help lower-income buyers access financing.
• Expands support for community banks, credit unions, CDFIs, and rural financial institutions that provide mortgage lending and affordable housing financing.
• Allows banks to put more money into affordable housing construction and preservation projects before hitting their federal investment limit.

Renter and Tenant Protections

• Restricts large corporations that own more than 350 single-family homes from purchasing additional single-family homes, while still allowing some build-to-rent activity.
• Creates a national renter resource center, including a complaint hotline and public website, for disputes involving large institutional landlords.

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Congressman Mike Thompson is proud to represent California’s 4th Congressional District, which includes all or part of Lake, Napa, Solano, Sonoma and Yolo Counties. He is a senior member of the House Committee on Ways and Means. Rep. Thompson is Chairman of the House Gun Violence Prevention Task Force. He is also Co-Chair of the bipartisan, bicameral Congressional Wine Caucus and a member of the fiscally-responsible Blue Dog Coalition.