Final Multiyear Transportation Bill Includes Housing Provisions

After months of deliberation both the House and Senate yesterday by wide margins passed multiyear transportation legislation—the Fixing America’s Surface Transportation Act (FAST). President Obama is expected to sign the bill before current authorization expires at the end of today.

FAST includes several housing-related provisions that have already won bipartisan support and passed the House in separate bills, including a pay-for-success demonstration program to improve water and energy efficiency in HUD-assisted multifamily developments, triannual recertifications for fixed-income households, a modification to the Low-Income Housing Preservation and Resident Homeownership Act (LIHPRA) to make it easier for owners of properties preserved under LIHPRA to access the equity in their properties, and language designed to exempt more lenders working in rural areas from Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) mortgage regulations.

Three of the housing provisions included in FAST –the pay for success pilot, triannual recertifications for fixed-income families, and the LIHPRA modification –were originally part of the Housing Opportunity through Modernization Act of 2015 (H.R. 3700), on which NCSHA has previously reported. Assuming that the FAST Act becomes law, the House Financial Services Committee is expected to pull these three provisions from H.R. 3700 and then markup that bill sometime next week.