Housing Is economic infrastructure, and Congress has finally started treating it that way
By Jim Brett, Providence Business News
For years, New England employers have identified one challenge that cuts across nearly every industry: our region is not building enough homes to meet demand. As a result, too many individuals and families cannot afford homes in the communities where they want to live and work.
Whether it is a manufacturer struggling to recruit skilled workers, a hospital competing for nurses, a financial institution expanding its workforce, or a university attracting faculty, the effects of the housing shortage are felt across our economy. Housing has become one of the region’s greatest economic constraints.
That is why the enactment of the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act marks a turning point. More than a housing bill, it is an investment in America’s economic competitiveness and a bipartisan recognition that expanding housing supply is essential to strengthening communities and sustaining long-term economic growth.
New England’s congressional delegations played an important role in shaping and advancing this legislation, including U.S. Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Jack Reed, and U.S. Reps. Jim Himes, Stephen F. Lynch and Ayanna Pressley. The New England Council thanks them for their leadership.
The legislation combines regulatory modernization, financing reforms, and incentives for local innovation to increase housing production.
Several provisions are especially important to New England.
The law modernizes manufactured housing by removing outdated regulatory requirements, updating federal standards and expanding financing opportunities. These reforms create new opportunities to deliver high-quality, lower-cost homes more efficiently.
It also strengthens local lenders by reducing regulatory burdens and improving access to mortgage financing, and it expands opportunities for first-time and workforce homebuyers by improving financing options.
One provision of particular significance to New England is the creation of a new Federal Innovation Fund. Developed by Senator Warren, the program authorizes up to $200 million annually in competitive grants for local and tribal governments that increase housing supply through reforms such as streamlined permitting, zoning modernization, density incentives, and other locally driven strategies.
Housing availability increasingly shapes where businesses invest, where workers choose to live, and whether communities can grow and remain competitive. Addressing affordability ultimately requires increasing supply, and Congress has now provided tools to help make that happen.
The New England Council has long advocated for practical, bipartisan policies that expand housing production. The enactment of the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act is a beginning, not the finish line. For New England to remain competitive, federal, state, local, and private-sector leaders must now work together to translate this landmark legislation into more homes, stronger communities and greater economic opportunity.