Bill > HR6644

This bill, the "Housing for the 21st Century Act," aims to increase the supply of housing in America by implementing several key provisions across various titles. Title I focuses on building smarter by establishing frameworks for housing supply, creating a grant program to accelerate home building, providing federal guidelines for specific building types like "point-access block buildings" (residential structures with a single internal stairway serving all units up to six stories), and streamlining review processes for housing projects, including environmental reviews under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) for certain housing-related activities. It also adjusts multifamily loan limits and mandates a study on "workforce housing" (housing for middle-income households). Title II modernizes local development and rural housing programs by reforming the HOME Investment Partnerships program (HOME), amending the Community Development Fund to track and reduce burdensome land use policies, and improving rural housing services. Title III expands financing opportunities for manufactured and affordable housing by introducing innovations for manufactured homes, including those built without a permanent chassis, and establishing a pilot program for FHA "small-dollar mortgages" (mortgages of $100,000 or less secured by a 1-4 unit primary residence). Title IV protects borrowers and assisted families by excluding certain disability benefits from income calculations for housing assistance, requiring a disclosure on loan applications about VA Home Loans, promoting interagency coordination between HUD, USDA, and VA, expanding a family self-sufficiency escrow pilot program, reforming housing counseling and financial literacy programs, establishing an eviction helpline, and piloting temperature sensors in federally assisted rental units. Title V enhances oversight of housing providers by requiring annual testimony from the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development and improving accountability for public housing agencies. Finally, Title VI strengthens community banks' role in housing by providing exceptions for custodial deposits, encouraging local deposits, modifying supervisory testing for well-managed and well-capitalized institutions, modernizing credit union board meetings, increasing transparency in systemic risk authority, creating exceptions for least-cost resolutions and failing bank acquisitions, advancing a mentor-protégé program for small financial institutions, promoting new bank formation, and studying rural depositories.

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https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/house-bill/6644/all-info