Senate passes bipartisan housing bill aimed at making homes more attainable
The U.S. Senate on Thursday passed a broad bipartisan housing bill with a vote of 89-10, a rare example of lawmakers from both parties moving together on a key national issue: housing access and affordability. Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who worked with Republicans to win support from both sides, said the country faces a housing shortage that affects people seeking to buy, rent, and find homes suited to a range of needs.
Warren argued that the legislation “will help drive down prices,” and she framed the bill as expanding housing of “every kind”—from options for first-time home buyers to rentals for seniors and people with disabilities, as well as rural and urban housing. Senate Banking Committee Chairman Tim Scott, a Republican, said the chamber would “do what so many people failed to do in this legislative body for the last few decades, and that is pass consequential legislation that makes it easier to become a homeowner.”
The bill would make several changes aimed at increasing housing supply and shifting how federal housing funds and financing tools are used. It would reduce regulations, expand how housing dollars can be used to build affordable homes and rentals, and give local governments more power on housing issues. It also would allow banks to invest more in affordable housing and lift limits on the number of public housing units that can receive private financing through Section 8 funding to rehabilitate properties.
The legislation would also streamline certain rules tied to environmental reviews and inspections, and it would lift a limit on a grant for emergency shelter beds and street homelessness outreach. In addition, as affordable housing developers increasingly rely on manufactured and modular homes, the bill would eliminate the requirement that such housing be built on a permanent chassis, a change intended to reduce costs and make development easier.
One of the most contested elements involves investment rules for single-family homes. The bill would bar institutional investors from buying single-family homes if the investors, directly or indirectly, own 350 or more such homes. It would not require those investors to sell single-family homes they already owned once the bill becomes law, but it would allow them to buy or build additional single-family homes if they rent them out. Under the proposal, those investors would have to sell the homes to an individual homebuyer after seven years.
The bill aligns with positions Donald Trump has supported publicly, including a social media post in January saying “People live in homes, not corporations,” and calling on Congress to act. The congressional proposal also faces criticism from opponents of the investor limits, who say it could reduce rental housing inventory and raise rents by limiting competition. Other concerns raised in the reporting include uncertainty about how much competition a definition targeting investors with 350 or more single-family homes would affect ordinary buyers during home shopping.
Even with the Senate’s bipartisan approval, lawmakers and observers said major hurdles remain. It was unclear whether House leaders would take up the Senate version as written, or whether they would instead pursue formal conference negotiations that could take months. House leaders have indicated they are unlikely to accept the Senate bill without changes, while Senate Majority Leader John Thune said conference negotiations are possible but that “the quickest way” would be to pick up the Senate bill and pass it.
The White House’s next steps also remain uncertain. While Trump has backed the legislation through bipartisan negotiations, the reporting said he slowed its momentum with a declaration last weekend that he would not sign new measures unless Congress also passes changes requiring proof of citizenship for voters and ending most mail-in balloting. The Senate is expected to begin consideration of the voting-related measure next week, but Democrats oppose it. House Financial Services Chairman French Hill said in a statement that Senate passage was “an important step,” while adding that it was critical for the bill’s details to be addressed to “mitigate some of the concerns raised by House members with the Senate bill.”