If you had told me six months ago that bipartisan housing and community development legislation would pass the Senate as a part of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), during a government shutdown dragging into its second week, I would have thought you were crazy. That wouldn’t have been far off the mark, but for the fact that it is true! Following up on the enactment of major improvements and expansion of the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit in the budget reconciliation bill in July, we continue to see highly impactful legislation to address the housing affordability crisis moving forward to enactment.
Our work is not done, of course. The Senate language needs to remain in the NDAA when it is reconciled with the House version, which doesn’t include it. However, we are closer than we have been in years, and I am more optimistic than I have been in a long time.
The ROAD to Housing Act represents one of the most impactful housing proposals in over a decade, and the Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs) provisions provide necessary support for these important organizations and the CDFI Fund at a critical juncture. We are grateful to Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee Chairman Tim Scott (R-S.C.) and Ranking Member Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) for their leadership in crafting and advancing the ROAD to Housing Act, which seeks to expand and preserve housing supply, improve housing affordability and access, advance accountability and fiscal responsibility, and improve oversight and program integrity.
Chairman Scott is right when he notes that, “All Americans agree – housing prices are too high, supply is too low, and regulations are too burdensome. For so many, the American Dream means owning your own home. The ROAD to Housing Act of 2025 will help that dream become a reality.” So is Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) who said, “This landmark legislation – the first of its kind in more than a decade – takes important steps to boost the nation’s housing supply, improve housing affordability, and increase oversight and efficiency of federal regulators and housing programs. I look forward to working with my colleagues in the House to get the bill to the President’s desk.”
We also appreciate the leadership of Senators Steve Daines (R-Mont.), Mark Warner (D-Virg.), and others on the CDFI enhancements which support CDFI Fund transparency, a secondary market for CDFI loans, expand USDA’s native CDFI lending program, and reduce minimum loans sizes for the CDFI bond guarantee program.
The housing affordability crisis has impacted every community in America, regardless of politics or geography, and it requires urgent, bipartisan, comprehensive action. Middle-class Americans are now facing a housing affordability crisis once reserved for low-income families.
NHC’s new report, “Priced Out: When a good job isn’t enough,” details how the nationwide affordability crisis impacts workers across nearly all income levels. Decades of underbuilding, rising interest rates, and wage stagnation have combined to push both homeownership and rental housing further out of reach. Using NHC’s Paycheck to Paycheck database to track affordability changes in 390 metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs) from 2019 to 2024, we know that:
- Homeownership Costs Have Surged: In 2024, 176 MSAs require a six-figure income to buy a typically priced home with 10% down, up from 30 in 2019. In 125 MSAs, the income needed to purchase has at least doubled since 2019.
- Renting Is Increasingly Unaffordable: Nearly half (47%) of tracked occupations cannot afford a two-bedroom apartment, compared to 38% in 2019. In 32 MSAs, the salary needed to comfortably rent exceeds $75,000.
- Wages Lag Far Behind Costs: Even traditionally high-earning professionals are losing housing access. In Seattle, Wash., dentists cannot afford to buy a typically priced home; in Asheville, N.C., civil engineers are priced out despite earning nearly $100,000.
No one piece of legislation or regulatory action will solve this crisis. Only a concerted effort across government over several years will reverse this trend. But the housing and community development provisions of the NDAA are a significant step forward.
Now it’s upon all of us to reach out to our Members of the Congress in the House of Representatives to urge them to retain these essential provisions in the final legislation – and to thank the many Senators whose leadership made possible this victory in the Senate.
Unfortunately, the government remains largely closed, federal workers continue to go unpaid, while leaders in the House, Senate, and White House refuse to negotiate. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) has said he won’t even consider calling the House back into session as long as the Senate refuses to pass the House budget extension. Take it or leave it is not a negotiation, regardless of how right you believe you are.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) and Rep. Mike Lawler (R-N.Y.) were yelling at each other in the hallway of the Capital like they were fighting over a taxi on Broadway and 49th. Across town, President Trump’s Budget Director, Russell Vought, has begun the process of firing for no other reason than negotiating leverage and intimidation. Despite the bipartisan support for the CDFI Fund and repeated interventions by Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, OMB’s war against the CDFI Fund continues with the reported firings of nearly the entire CDFI Fund staff on Friday. After 250 years, is this the best we can do?
I think not – and passage of the NDAA is as good an example of what we can accomplish if we try. It’s time to learn from that experience and do better. Much better.