The following summary provides a comprehensive overview of the major provisions included in the final version of the 21st Century Renewing Opportunity in the American Dream (ROAD) to Housing Act. This guide is intended as a reference resource and highlights provisions most relevant to housing policy, local governments, developers, lenders and related stakeholders.

Title I – Opportunities for Housing

• Requires Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to conduct periodic performance reviews of housing counseling organizations and authorizes corrective action against poorly performing counselors, including requiring additional training and revoking certifications.
• Directs HUD to establish federal guidelines and model code language for “point-access block” or single-stair apartment buildings up to six stories and authorizes pilot grants to evaluate feasibility and safety.
• Exempts certain U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Rural Housing Service-funded infill housing projects from National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) requirements to accelerate development timelines.
• Requires Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) grantees to maintain publicly accessible searchable databases of undeveloped publicly owned land suitable for development.
• Authorizes a pilot program to expand access to small-dollar mortgages of $100,000 or less, sunsetting after four years.
• Creates a pilot program to install temperature sensors in federally assisted rental housing to monitor compliance with heating and cooling standards.
• Directs HUD to publish voluntary zoning and land use best practices for states, tribes, territories and localities.

Title II – Building More in America

• Allows HUD to prioritize competitive grant applications benefiting designated “Opportunity Zones” for housing preservation and construction projects.
• Creates the Whole-Home Repairs pilot program to provide grants and forgivable loans for eligible recipients to address repair needs and health hazards.
• Raises the cap on bank public welfare investments from 15% to 20% of capital to support affordable housing and community development financing.
• Allows CDBG funds to be used for new affordable housing construction.
• Authorizes HUD to treat certain housing assistance as “special projects” to help simplify compliance with NEPA.
• Streamlines HUD environmental review requirements by expanding NEPA exemptions and categorical exclusions for housing-related activities, including rehabilitation, supportive services, tenant-based assistance and infill development.
• Expands HUD’s authority to delegate certain environmental responsibilities to states, local governments and tribes.
• Creates a competitive grant program at HUD to help state, local and tribal governments implement planning and community development activities.
• Authorizes a $200 million flexible innovation fund to support jurisdictions increasing housing supply.
• Authorizes grants for local “pattern books” of preapproved housing designs to streamline permitting and construction.
• Creates a pilot program under the HOME Investment Partnerships program to convert vacant and abandoned buildings into attainable housing.
• Updates Federal Housing Administration (FHA) multifamily loan limits to reflect current construction costs and inflation.
• Lifts the Rental Assistance Demonstration (RAD) program cap by 100,000 units and extends protections for tenants in RAD buildings.
• Ties certain eligible localities’ CDBG allocations to housing growth, including bonus amounts for higher growth recipients and allocation reductions for recipients with below median housing growth improvement rates.

Title III – Manufactured Housing for America

• Expands the federal definition of “manufactured housing” to include homes built with or without a permanent chassis and establishes HUD as the primary federal authority for energy efficiency standards in manufactured housing.
• Directs FHA to assess barriers to modular housing lending and consider modernizing financing draw schedules to support modular construction.
• Updates FHA lending standards for manufactured housing and directs HUD to study the long-term value and cost effectiveness of factory built housing finance.
• Reauthorizes Preservation and Reinvestment for Community Enhancement grants for seven years to fund the repair of manufactured homes.

Title IV – Accessing the American Dream

• Requires CFPB to study how loan originator compensation rules affect the availability of small-dollar mortgage lending.
• Requires CFPB, HUD and FHFA to evaluate the impact of existing qualified mortgage points-and-fees caps on mortgage access.
• Expands appraiser workforce capacity by reforming appraiser qualifications and FHA appraisal requirements.
• Authorizes HUD to establish a multiyear demonstration project that will test and evaluate an opt out approach to the Family Self-Sufficiency program.
• Aims to reduce delays in HUD inspections by allowing units funded through certain federal housing programs to automatically meet Housing Choice Voucher inspection requirements if they have passed an inspection within the past year.
• Allows new landlords to request advance inspections, helping expand housing options for voucher holders.

Title V – Program Reform

• Modernizes HUD’s HOME program by expanding eligibility to workforce-income households, updating funding limits, expanding tenant protections and allowing greater flexibility for housing-related infrastructure investments.
• Streamlines environmental review requirements for smaller HOME-assisted projects and extends deadlines for jurisdictions to commit HOME funds.
• Directs HUD to review the implementation of Build America, Buy America Act requirements and clarify the application of these requirements in HOME-funded projects.
• Reforms USDA Rural Housing Service programs by decoupling rental assistance from maturing mortgages to preserve affordable rural housing.
• Allows recipients of HUD Emergency Solutions Grants to request waivers of the statutory 60% cap on emergency shelter and street outreach spending.
• Authorizes HUD’s CDBG Disaster Recovery program for three years and reforms the program to better help the needs of low to moderate income households following major disasters.
• Authorizes a new Moving to Work program cohort, the “Economic Opportunity and Pathways to Independence Cohort,” with specific requirements.

Title VI – Veterans and Housing

• Requires the Uniform Residential Loan Application used by most mortgage lenders to notify military veterans that they may qualify for a Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) home loan.
• Excludes veterans’ disability benefits from income calculations used to determine eligibility for HUD-Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing and similar veteran housing assistance programs.
• Enhances the FHA mortgage disclosures to help borrowers compare VA loan options alongside conventional and FHA loans.

Title VII – Oversight and Accountability

• Requires the HUD Secretary to testify annually before Congress regarding agency operations, oversight activities and program performance.
• Requires HUD to provide monthly Congressional reports on the FHA Mutual Mortgage Insurance Fund’s capital ratio and notify Congress if the ratio falls below the 2% statutory requirement.
• Requires the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness to provide annual updates regarding the federal homelessness strategy.
• Requires USDA, VA, FHA and Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) to establish procedures for reconsideration of residential appraisals when consumers dispute home values.
• Requires Government Accountability Office (GAO) to assess the feasibility of creating a publicly available appraisal database.

Title VIII – Accountability, Coordination, Studies, and Reporting

• Directs HUD, USDA and VA to coordinate on opportunities to streamline housing program implementation.
• Requires HUD and USDA to coordinate joint environmental reviews for projects funded by both agencies.
• Directs HUD to study the effects of public housing work requirements, including impacts on homelessness, employment, poverty and administrative burden.
• Directs GAO to study workforce housing gaps, housing accessibility for elderly and disabled residents, housing located near Environmental Protection Agency Superfund sites, and heirs’ property issues.
• Expands public disclosure, reporting and congressional oversight requirements for troubled public housing agencies operating under receivership or federal monitoring.

Title IX – Strengthening Community Banks’ Role in Housing

• Clarifies that custodial deposits at smaller banks should not be considered brokered deposits or be subject to those same regulations.
• Allows banks to exclude a larger percentage of reciprocal deposits from being considered brokered based on a bank’s total liabilities.
• Directs the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) to study reciprocal deposits.
• Raises the asset limit for financial institutions eligible for a longer examination cycle from $3 billion to $6 billion.
• Allows boards of well-run federal credit unions to meet as few as six times a year rather than monthly.
• Directs GAO and federal banking regulators to report to Congress on the causes of bank failures that require invoking the “systemic risk exception” to the FDIC’s least-cost resolution requirement.
• Codifies a Department of Treasury program that pairs large financial institutions with small, rural banks and minority depository institutions to promote capacity growth.
• Directs federal financial regulators to support the formation of new community banks and credit unions by streamlining application processes and improving coordination. Federal banking agencies must also pilot a two year phase-in period for certain capital requirements and allow flexibility to modify approved business plans.
• Requires federal banking agencies and the National Credit Union Administration to study ways to improve the growth, capital adequacy and profitability of rural depository institutions and credit unions, including barriers to in rural areas.

Title X – Home Ownership for Main Street America

• Prohibits large institutional investors, generally certain for profit entities with direct or indirect investment control of not less than 350 single-family homes, from purchasing, or entering into a contract to purchase, additional single-family homes, subject to statutory exceptions.
• Provides exceptions for certain purchases, including build-to-rent, renovate-to-rent, homeownership programs, loss-mitigation transactions, ownership restructurings and other excepted transactions.
• Establishes a renter outreach resource at HUD and requires large institutional investors to provide renters with information about that resource and investor dispute contacts.

Title XI – Central Bank Digital Currency

• Prohibits the Federal Reserve from issuing a central bank digital currency through Dec. 31, 2030, absent express congressional authorization.

Title XII – Miscellaneous

• Provides for severability.
• Clarifies that no additional funds are authorized to conduct the act.