NCSHA Washington Report | March 13, 2026

The country’s housing shortage, once an arcane interest of academics and advocates, has broken through as a priority concern for many Americans and spurred a wave of efforts by state and local leaders across the country to boost the supply of new homes, with Congress close to passing a major bill to amplify their efforts.

Three brand-new reports offer an important reminder that public attention and public action should also focus on the people any affordable housing, new or existing, is intended to serve. The reports show how smart investments in resident savings mechanisms and services on site where lower-income families live can deliver a wide range of benefits that bolster their prospects and those of the properties (the “supply”) as well.

The first paper, Building Financial Assets for Residents in LIHTC Communities, sketches out six different policy/financial structures for helping residents of Low-Income Housing Tax Credit-financed properties build household savings of $2,000 – $6,000 over five years.

The recommendations, which draw in part from a highly successful federal program that has delivered similar results for residents of public housing, call on state housing finance agencies and property owners to use their “established infrastructure for innovation” to test and pilot these approaches. The ideas, which include rent rebates, annual “bonuses,” and capitalized reserves, could be put in place without new laws or regulations, the authors argue.

The other two papers focus on financial education, health and employment assistance, and other on-site resources for low-income renters. One, The Impact of Resident Services on Property Financial Performance, finds that buildings offering them generate 26 percent higher net operating income — $1,200 per apartment — than those that do not. The other, The Case for Resident Services, reports that owners associate services with greater stability, financial resilience, and resident health outcomes.

The authors call on public agencies and financial institutions to include these quantifiable impacts “in development proformas, property budgets, and underwriting standards as well as scoring incentives in state Qualified Allocation Plans (QAPs), rather than treating them as discretionary add-ons.”

An awful lot of policy proposals and new financing concepts lean more on advocacy than analysis. The papers summarized here are grounded in rigorous methodologies, sophisticated financial modeling, and extensive stakeholder consultation — all of which are available to readers. (NCSHA was among the group of organizations that commissioned the asset building paper.)

Everyone involved in them understands full well the major financial challenges owners, operators, and funders of affordable apartment properties are facing, from spiking insurance costs to mounting unpaid rent. Helping residents get on stronger financial footing will demand an industry that should be known as much for its ingenuity as its compassion to leverage both in new ways.

Stockton Williams | Executive Director

In This Issue

• Senate Passes Comprehensive Affordable Housing Bill
• NCSHA Expresses Concerns Over Reporting System Changes in Letter to Treasury
• HUD Postpones Implementation of Rule Shortening Eviction Notice Requirements
• Harvard Joint Center Report Confirms Rental Affordability Challenges
• Report Recommends Asset-Building Strategies to Support Housing Credit Residents
• SAHF Reports Highlight Impact of Resident Services in Affordable Housing
• Looking Ahead

Senate Passes Comprehensive Affordable Housing Bill
The U.S. Senate Thursday morning passed via a strong bipartisan vote comprehensive housing legislation. The bill, titled the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act, combines most of the elements of previous affordable housing packages passed by the Senate and House of Representatives (the ROAD to Housing and Housing for the 21st Century acts, respectively) earlier this Congress. If signed into law, this will be by far the most substantial housing legislation to become law in more than a decade. NCSHA officially endorsed the legislation, and Executive Director Stockton Williams praised the bill in a press release issued by Senate Banking Committee Chair Tim Scott (R-SC). We have summarized the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act in more detail in our blog.

NCSHA recently sent a letter to House and Senate leadership and the relevant committee leaders outlining our key priorities for housing legislation, most of which were included in the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act. This includes legislation that would reauthorize and modernize the HOME Investment Partnerships Program (HOME) and the Community Investment and Prosperity Act, which would raise the cap on banks’ public welfare investments, a category that includes Housing Credit investments (more information on the HOME provisions is available here).

The bill also includes a provision, pushed for by the Trump Administration, prohibiting any financial entity from owning more than 350 single-family homes. NCSHA spearheaded a letter from Housing Credit advocates to Scott and Banking Committee Ranking Member Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) asking them to amend the legislation to clarify that prohibition does not apply to Housing Credit-financed homes.

Now that the legislation has passed the Senate, the House could approve the Senate-passed bill or look to reconcile the differences between the House and Senate bills. House Financial Services Committee Chair French Hill (R-AR) and other House Republican leaders have indicated they have several concerns with the bill as passed by the Senate, so further negotiations between the two chambers, and potentially the White House, appear likely.

NCSHA Expresses Concerns Over Reporting System Changes in Letter to Treasury
Last Friday, NCSHA submitted comments to the U.S. Department of the Treasury expressing concerns about and asking the department to rescind its plan to develop a new “System of Records” that would affect grantees and recipients in at least eight programs, including the Homeowner Assistance Fund, Emergency Rental Assistance program, and State and Local Fiscal Recovery Fund. While the stated purpose of the proposed system is to “identify potential waste, fraud, and abuse,” as described in the notice the effort would require a massive data collection effort. NCSHA noted in its comments that the new system will be duplicative and burdensome, grantee program budgets did not account for transmitting every document pertaining to their programs to the U.S. Treasury, and the notice does not explain how records will be securely transmitted to safeguard the significant personally identifiable information the program records contain.

HUD Postpones Implementation of Rule Shortening Eviction Notice Requirements
This week, HUD issued a notice revoking the interim final rule it published last month, which sought to repeal a previous policy requiring at least 30 days’ notice be given to a tenant before termination of their lease for nonpayment of rent, after the National Housing Law Project and other plaintiffs filed a legal complaint arguing HUD bypassed the required comment period for the policy’s implementation. As NCSHA previously reported, the interim final rule would have gone into effect on March 30; instead, HUD now is treating it as a proposed rule open for comment until April 27 without a set effective date.

Prior to a change made in 2021, public housing agencies and owners of properties receiving project-based and other project rental assistance could terminate a tenant’s lease due to nonpayment of rent after a notice period of between five and 30 days, depending on the program. Regulations put in place during the Biden Administration changed those requirements to a minimum of 30 days for all covered programs. The Trump Administration is seeking to reinstate the pre-2021 policies that allowed for shorter notice periods.

Litigants objected to HUD’s use of an interim final rule, which though it allowed for comments, reinstated the shorter notice periods before the comment deadline. Now that the interim final rule has been changed to a proposed rule, the policy change will not go into effect until HUD publishes a final rule after reviewing public comments. To help NCSHA consider whether to submit comments and what feedback to provide, please send any input to Jennifer Schwartz by April 17.

Harvard Joint Center Report Confirms Rental Affordability Challenges
Harvard University’s Joint Center for Housing Studies (JCHS) released its latest report, America’s Rental Housing 2026, and discussed the findings during a webinar Thursday with JCHS staff and other housing experts. The report shows the number of cost-burdened renter households reached another record high in 2024, with nearly half of renters spending more than 30 percent of their income on housing. While rents for new leases have begun to moderate and vacancy rates are rising slightly, the report notes many lower-income renters continue to face severe affordability pressures. The JCHS report also highlights slowing multifamily construction, growing need to reinvest in the nation’s aging rental stock, and increasing pressure on state and local governments to address housing needs as federal resources remain limited.

Report Recommends Asset-Building Strategies to Support Housing Credit Residents
As referenced above, a new white paper recommends various strategies housing finance agencies, lenders and equity investors, and property owners can utilize to help residents of Housing Credit properties build assets. The paper provides detailed financial models for six approaches — ranging from rent rebates to capitalized reserves — that could enable residents to accumulate $2,000 – $6,000 in savings over five years. The authors, principals at ThruSite and Occulus, conducted dozens of interviews with HFA staff and other industry participants to develop and refine the recommendations. Compass Working Capital, Housing Partnership Network, Stewards of Affordable Housing for the Future, and NCSHA commissioned the research.

SAHF Reports Highlight Impact of Resident Services in Affordable Housing
Also mentioned above, this week Stewards of Affordable Housing for the Future (SAHF) released two reports examining the impact of resident services in affordable housing. The first report, based on research conducted with Abt Global using data from 248 properties across 19 housing organizations, finds that properties offering resident services generate 26 percent higher net operating income, about $1,200 more per unit annually, than comparable properties without services.

The companion report drawing on SAHF member data from 2022 – 25 finds residents in service-enriched properties experience stronger housing stability, lower rent arrears, improved access to health care, and higher labor force participation. Together, the reports highlight how resident services can strengthen both resident outcomes and property financial performance and suggest such services should be treated as a core component of affordable housing operations rather than an optional add-on.

Looking Ahead

Legislative and Regulatory Activities

• March 26 | House Financial Services Committee’s Housing and Insurance Subcommittee | Hearing: Mitigation and Multiple Loss Properties: Factors Influencing the High Cost of Flooding
• April 10 | Comments Due to NCSHA | HUD Proposed Rule: Verification of Eligible Status for HUD-Subsidized Housing Assistance
• April 17 | Comments Due to NCSHA | HUD Interim Final Rule: Revocation of the 30-Day Notification Requirement Prior to Termination of Lease for Nonpayment of Rent
• April 17 | Comments Due to NCSHA | HUD Proposed Rule: Allowing PHAs and Owners to Set Work Requirements and Term Limits
• April 21 | Comments Due | HUD Proposed Rule: Verification of Eligible Status for HUD-Subsidized Housing Assistance
• April 27 | Comments Due | HUD Interim Final Rule: Revocation of the 30-Day Notification Requirement Prior to Termination of Lease for Nonpayment of Rent
• May 1 | Comments Due | HUD Proposed Rule: Allowing PHAs and Owners to Set Work Requirements and Term Limits

State and Industry Events

• March 16 | 2026 Conference on Housing and Economic Development | Boise, ID
  Stockton Williams will speak at this event.
• March 17 | 2026 COSCDA Program Managers Training Conference | Washington, DC
  Garth Rieman will speak at this event.
• March 18 | New Hampshire Housing Homeownership Conference 2026 | Concord, NH
  Stockton Williams will speak at this event.
• March 18 – 19 | Yardi Forum: Affordable Housing and PHA | Boston, MA
  Jennifer Schwartz will speak at this event.
• March 23 – 26 | NAHMA Top Issues in Affordable Housing Conference | Washington, DC
  Jennifer Schwartz will speak at this event.
• April 14 – 16 | NIFA Innovation Expo 2026 | Lincoln, NE
  Jennifer Schwartz will speak at this event.
• April 21 – 23 | Affordable Housing Investors Council Spring Meeting | Scottsdale, AZ
  Jim Tassos will speak at this event.