'Landmark' housing affordability bill becomes law without Trump's signature

Legislation intended to make housing more affordable for millions of Americans became law Friday despite President Trump's refusing to sign it. In June, both chambers of Congress approved the housing bill - called the 21st Century Road to Housing Act - in a rare moment of bipartisan agreement.

But Trump refused to sign the bill unless Congress passed voter ID legislation based on his widespread false claims of widespread voter fraud. A signing ceremony had been scheduled but at the last minute Trump said he would not sign it, saying on Truth Social that the measure was "of minor importance."

He did not veto it, however, allowing it to become law without his signature.

Experts have said the legislation is the most comprehensive action from Congress on lowering house costs for renters and homebuyers in the 21st Century.

"This bill becoming law is a genuine milestone—and I don't use that word lightly," Dennis Shea, of the Bipartisan Policy Center (BPC), told the BBC. "Getting Congress to move on housing supply and affordability has been a long time coming, and the American people made clear they were ready for it."

A survey from the BPC earlier this year found that 89% of voters from across the political spectrum wanted action from Congress to make housing more affordable.

What the "21st Century ROAD to Housing Act" provides

The measure is primarily a policy bill, not a spending bill — Section 1102 explicitly authorizes no new federal funds.

Here are the bill's headline provisions, as we reported earlier:

Institutional investor crackdown (Section 901)

• Bans "large institutional investors" — defined as for-profit entities controlling 350+ single-family homes — from buying additional single-family homes.
• Definition includes duplexes; covers acquisitions via merger, foreclosure, etc.
• Build-to-rent and renovate-to-rent purchases allowed as exceptions, but the investor must sell to an individual homeowner within 7 years, with renters getting a 30-day "first look" and right of first refusal.
• Penalties up to $1 million per home or 3x purchase price.
• Takes effect 180 days after enactment; sunsets after 15 years.

Regulatory streamlining

• Carves out wide NEPA environmental-review exemptions for housing — tenant rental assistance, supportive services, infill construction, small projects, and Rural Housing Service infill projects.
• Authorizes "pattern books" — pre-approved building designs so builders can permit and build faster.
• Expressly does NOT preempt local zoning — a notable limitation, since local zoning is the binding constraint in most markets.

Financing and HUD program changes

• Raises FHA multifamily loan limits to match high-cost markets.
• Raises the bank "public welfare investment" cap from 15% to 20% — letting national banks and Fed-supervised banks put more capital into affordable housing.
• HUD pilot for small-dollar mortgages (≤$100,000), aimed at lower-priced markets banks have abandoned.
• Modernizes/reauthorizes the HOME Investment Partnerships program; raises income eligibility, makes community land trusts eligible.
• Lifts the cap on the Rental Assistance Demonstration (RAD) program and codifies tenant protections.
• Allows CDBG funds to be used for new affordable housing construction (up to 20%).

Manufactured housing

• Drops HUD's requirement that manufactured homes be built on a permanent chassis — opening up cheaper modular designs.
• Expands FHA financing for manufactured units.

Zoning incentives (carrots, not sticks)

• $200 million/year in competitive grants to localities that adopt zoning/permitting reforms boosting housing production.
• HUD issues voluntary model zoning guidelines.
• Opportunity Zone applicants get bonus scoring on competitive HUD grants.

Veterans, rural, and homelessness

• Section 602 (Housing Unhoused Disabled Veterans Act) expands HUD-VASH access for homeless veterans.
• Section 502 reforms USDA rural housing programs — including continuing rental assistance after USDA mortgages mature, easier nonprofit acquisition of Section 515 properties.
• Section 503 gives communities more flexibility on Emergency Solutions Grant funds for unsheltered homelessness.

Whole-Home Repairs

• Section 202/203: 5-year, $30 million pilot for home-repair grants to low/moderate-income owners and forgivable loans to small landlords.

Miscellaneous

• Temporary prohibition on the Federal Reserve creating a digital dollar — surprising add-on for a housing bill.

Bottom line

Independent analysts (the Bipartisan Policy Center, UBS, the NYT) call it the most significant federal housing law in decades — but they're also clear it's no quick fix. The supply-side reforms are real but modest; the institutional-investor ban is the most aggressive piece and the most legally contested (the Real Estate Roundtable has already published a white paper arguing it's unconstitutional).

With no new money attached, much depends on whether the Trump VA, HUD, USDA, and bank regulators actually stand up the pilots and grants the bill authorizes.