America’s cities, towns and villages are getting a boost for their housing efforts.
With a shortage of four million housing units, the housing crisis impacts every community across America in some way. As long as leaders have been contending with the issue, NLC’s position as the voice of cities, towns and villages has been clear: Local governments are looking for good partners to help meet the housing needs of our residents.
Last week, the federal government improved the federal-local partnership AND cleared the way for better public-private partnerships focused on housing needs with the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act (PDF). The bill passed both chambers of Congress with overwhelming bipartisan support and became law days later. The passage is an achievement we all need to claim credit for, celebrate and take advantage of.
The 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act was only made possible after years of on-the-ground work to improve the bonds between public and private sector stakeholders, as well as grassroots advocacy and testimony to Congress about housing needs on the ground and innovations and solutions local governments are pioneering nationwide.
Through our advocacy efforts, NLC made it clear that local governments are one part of the solution, but cities and towns need more partnership, not preemption. That message resonated with the bill’s bipartisan co-sponsors, Senate Banking Committee Chairman Tim Scott and Ranking Member Elizabeth Warren, and House Financial Services Committee Chairman French Hill and Ranking Member Maxine Waters. As a result of their leadership and others, including Reps. Mike Flood and Emanuel Cleaver, local governments have more flexibility in using Community Development Block Grants, HOME Investment Partnership Program and several new highly flexible pilot grant programs. Those include an Innovation Fund, a Whole-Repair Program, grants for pattern book homes and new regional housing planning grants.
Local leaders have always excelled at solving their residents’ challenges and issues through innovation. Today, with the newly enacted housing bill, local governments have new flexibility and freedom to experiment and innovate with housing — from streamlining building standards to allow housing to be built more quickly and affordably, to the ability to provide gap financing to encourage more attainable housing development in our communities.
The goal: to help all your residents, including the young couple purchasing their first home, and seniors who want to sell their current home and downsize to one that better fits their needs and help extended families create and retain generational wealth through greater access to homeownership.
So Now What Happens?
Read our Ten Things Local Leaders Need to Know About the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act to understand what’s in the law.
We all have work to do — and NLC will be here to help you. From giving you the resources that you need to understand the various pieces of this legislation, to our technical assistance programs that can support your policy goals and objectives around housing. We owe it to our residents to deliver on the promise of attainable housing for all.
This legislation offers something for cities and towns of all sizes. Housing assistance programs across the board have been improved, from those at HUD to those at USDA and others. Local government program improvements, in conjunction with many new private sector incentives and improvements meant to unlock greater private investment in housing, can benefit all municipalities.
NLC has been in this fight for a long time and is keeping the needs and voices of cities, towns and villages front and center. The 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act was a long time coming and an accomplishment that we will celebrate — and do what local governments do best: Deliver. So, I encourage local leaders to join NLC in claiming this victory for our residents and our communities.
Explore the Ultimate Housing Resource for City Leaders
The Housing Supply Accelerator Playbook: Solutions, Systems, Partnerships, a collaboration by National League of Cities and American Planning Association, is a comprehensive resource that focuses on how city leaders can accelerate locally driven housing solutions.
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