In the nature of a substitute.

The 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act is a proposed amendment that replaces the contents of bill H.R. 6644. Its purpose is to create a comprehensive framework to increase the supply and affordability of housing across the United States.

Increasing Housing Supply and Accessibility

• Building Initiatives: The amendment introduces several grants and programs to boost construction, including the Build Now Act (adjusting grants based on housing growth rates), the RESIDE Act (converting vacant commercial buildings to housing), and the Accelerating Home Building Act (using pre-reviewed designs).
• Housing Types: It expands the use of manufactured and modular housing by updating standards, reviewing financing barriers, and providing grants to improve manufactured housing communities.
• Financial Access: It increases multifamily loan limits and seeks to increase "small dollar mortgages" ($100,000 or less) by reviewing how loan originators are paid and adjusting limits on points and fees.
• Administrative Efficiency: It streamlines NEPA environmental reviews, allows for inspection flexibility if other federal inspections were passed within 12 months, and permits new landlords to have units inspected before selecting tenants.

Support for Homeowners and Renters

• Financial Literacy and Counseling: It reforms housing counseling with new performance reviews and requires that delinquent borrowers be offered counseling opportunities.
• Direct Assistance: It creates an Escrow Expansion Pilot Program for families to save money based on earned income and establishes a pilot for whole-home repairs for eligible landlords and homeowners.
• Rural Housing: It creates the Rural Community Development Initiative for nonprofits and tribes, increases loan limits for minor farm housing improvements to $15,000, and updates rural housing voucher adjustment processes.
• Veteran Support: It requires loan applications to ask about military service to help veterans find VA Home Loans and excludes certain disability benefits from income calculations for specific programs.

Program Reforms and Disaster Recovery

• Disaster Management: It establishes the Office of Disaster Management and Resiliency within HUD and creates the Long-Term Disaster Recovery Fund and CDBG Disaster Recovery Program, requiring 70 percent of funds to benefit low- and moderate-income people.
• Existing Programs: It reauthorizes the HOME Investment Partnerships program, expanding eligibility to families making up to 100 percent of the area median family income. It also creates the Housing Preservation and Revitalization Program for rural multifamily projects.

Oversight, Accountability, and Restrictions

• Institutional Investors: The amendment prohibits large institutional investors controlling 350 or more single-family homes from buying single-family homes, except for new construction or specific programs. Those using exceptions must sell the home to an individual within 7 years or face civil penalties up to $1,000,000 or 3 times the property price.
• Government Accountability: It mandates annual congressional testimony from HUD and housing officials, requires monthly reports on the Mutual Mortgage Insurance Fund, and directs the GAO to study the Rural Housing Service's technology and the feasibility of a public appraisal database.
• Appraisal Industry: It updates appraiser education requirements for FHA mortgages and adds state credentialed trainee appraisers to the national registry.
• Other Provisions: It prohibits the Federal Reserve from issuing a central bank digital currency unless it is private and open, and it creates a "Moving to Work" cohort for public housing agencies to use flexible funding.