NCSHA Washington Report | September 19, 2025
Several apartment projects promising more than 200 affordable homes that received state and federal funding last fall are struggling to break ground on schedule across one New England state. A transformative 320-unit development in a Midwestern city has been hit with $17 million in additional costs.
The winning project in another heartland state’s housing innovation competition is scrambling to restructure its financing and find contractors to start work. Builders in a Mountain West state are facing delays of six months and more, along with hundreds of thousands of dollars in new consultant costs.
The single cause of this diverse dysfunction, shared by countless other affordable housing developments across the country, is a federal regulation that arguably shouldn’t apply to them in the first place. In any event, the Trump Administration can solve the problem.
The regulation derives from the Build America, Buy America Act, part of the big federal infrastructure bill in 2021. The law broadened the reach of long-running requirements that massive federally funded rail, airport, and highway projects be built with goods primarily manufactured in the U.S. to affordable housing developments with as few as five units. BABA’s “domestic source” mandate encompasses “manufactured products” and “construction materials” as well as inputs like iron and steel.
Builder representatives said last year that BABA’s “added costs will strain the resources of state and local governments and their development partners, ultimately reducing the pool of firms participating in HUD programs and curtailing affordable housing production.” That’s what’s happening now.
NCSHA has urged the Trump White House, as we did the Biden Administration, to enable HUD and USDA to relieve affordable housing from BABA’s onerous mandates because builders in many parts of the country cannot meet them due to shortages, supply chain disruptions, and manufacturing bottlenecks beyond their control. The red tape that comes with them compounds the costs and delays.
The Trump Administration can fix this. The White House’s Office of Management and Budget has already determined that BABA requirements don’t apply to single-family (meaning fewer than five-unit) homes and clarified that federal multifamily financing programs such as the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit and FHA mortgage insurance don’t trigger them either. Now it should say the same about federal grant programs that support housing construction, which are often used with those financing sources.
If that’s deemed a bridge too far, the White House and HUD should take other steps right away to mitigate BABA’s harm to housing. The waiver period for projects demonstrating hardship should be extended and more flexible, and waivers should be issued more quickly. BABA should apply only to the portion of project costs that covered funding constitutes. And HUD should exempt private companies from the BABA mandates, as USDA has done.
Revitalizing American manufacturing through domestic procurement policies has broad bipartisan support. So does increasing the supply of affordable homes. Sparing federally funded efforts to accomplish the latter, which represent a sliver of manufacturing demand, from the counterproductive impacts of the former cannot happen soon enough.
Stockton Williams | Executive Director
In This Issue
- House Passes Continuing Resolution Extending Government Funding Through November 21; Senate Rejects It
- Judge Issues Temporary Restraining Order Against HUD’s CoC Builds NOFO Plan
- Terner Center and RAND Release Study on Improving Housing Choice Voucher Program Utilization
- Looking Ahead
House Passes Continuing Resolution Extending Government Funding Through November 21; Senate Rejects It
The U.S. House of Representatives voted 217–212 on mostly party lines this morning to pass a “clean” continuing resolution (CR) that would extend funding for federal agencies at the FY25 funding level through November 21, averting a shutdown at the end of the fiscal year on September 30. This afternoon, the Senate rejected the House-passed CR and a Democratic alternative on mostly party-line votes. Sixty votes are necessary to pass a CR in the Senate, so Republicans need at least several Democratic votes to pass one. Congress likely will not resolve this impasse for at least 10 days as the House is scheduled to be out of session until October 1, and the Senate is unlikely to vote on a CR again until September 29 at the earliest.
Meanwhile, the House and Senate have moved to conference on and may pass soon three FY26 appropriations bills that have already passed the Senate, including a bill funding the U.S. Department of Agriculture and its rural housing programs.
Judge Issues Temporary Restraining Order Against HUD’s CoC Builds NOFO Plan
The U.S. District Court for the District of Rhode Island has granted a temporary restraining order halting implementation of new HUD restrictions on funding through its Continuum of Care Builds Program. HUD recently had informed applicants who had received acknowledgment of an award under an earlier notice of funding opportunity (NOFO) that those awards would be cancelled and a new NOFO containing the contested restrictions issued, with just one week to reapply. The National Alliance to End Homelessness brought the case in connection with the Women’s Development Corporation in Rhode Island.
Terner Center and RAND Release Study on Improving Housing Choice Voucher Program Utilization
The Terner Center and RAND Corporation jointly released Thursday “Improving Utilization in the Housing Choice Voucher Program.” The report discusses ways Housing Choice Voucher program administrators could increase voucher utilization and highlights advantages and benefits of greater regulatory flexibility, program innovation, and local partnerships to consistently deliver every available voucher to families in need. The report also recommends public housing agencies adopt voucher issuance strategies that allow for a slightly higher risk of shortfall in accordance with HUD guidance and utilization analysis tools or customized applications; extend allowable search times to 180 days and allow even longer search times for households facing higher barriers to finding housing; experiment with variable payment standards; adopt a customer-service approach or partner with local nonprofits and government organizations to recruit more landlords into the program, improve landlord relationships, and assist tenants with housing search and other needs; and project-base more vouchers if they have not reached their limit for doing so.
Legislative and Regulatory Activities
- September 19 | Comments Due to NCSHA | FHFA Notice on Repealing the Fair Lending, Fair Housing, and Equitable Housing Finance Plans Regulation
- September 26 | Comments Due | FHFA Notice on Repealing the Fair Lending, Fair Housing, and Equitable Housing Finance Plans Regulation
- October 15 | Comments Due to NCSHA | Federal Banking Regulators’ Request for Comment on Simplifying and Updating Community Reinvestment Act Regulations
- October 23 | Comments Due | Federal Banking Regulators’ Request for Comment on Simplifying and Updating Community Reinvestment Act Regulations
NCSHA, State HFA, and Industry Events
- September 25 – 26 | Novogradac 2025 Housing Tax Credit and Bonds Conference | Nashville, TN
Jennifer Schwartz will speak at this event. - September 28 – 30 | Housing Washington Conference | Bellevue, WA
- October 4 – 7 | NCSHA Annual Conference & Showplace | New Orleans
- October 13 – 15 | AppFolio FUTURE 2025 The Real Estate Conference | San Diego, CA
Jennifer Schwartz will speak at this event. - October 22 – 23 | AHTCC Fall Meeting | Washington, DC
Jennifer Schwartz will speak at this event. - October 22 – 24 | NAHMA Top Issues in Affordable Housing Conference | Washington, DC
Jennifer Schwartz will speak at this event. - October 23 – 24 | CLPHA Fall Meeting | Washington, DC
Jennifer Schwartz will speak at this event. - October 27 – 29 | Kansas Housing Conference | Overland Park, KS
