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NCSHA Washington Report | May 1, 2026

Published on May 1, 2026

NCSHA Washington Report - 2025

The “pro-housing” policy movement, which took hold in state legislatures several years ago and arrived in full on Capitol Hill in 2025, is noteworthy for its bipartisan political character and legislative productivity.

Thirty-three states passed a combined 124 pro-housing bills through June of last year, with most moving multiple pieces of legislation and many doing so for the second or third session in a row, according to George Mason University’s Mercatus Center. In DC, the House and Senate have each passed their most significant housing bills in years, by huge bipartisan majorities, and members of both parties put forward new proposals practically every day.

With hugely consequential congressional mid-terms and 39 gubernatorial elections only months away, it’s reasonable to wonder whether housing’s long-overdue moment in the political sun reflects poll-tested “affordability” messaging that will fade afterwards or a new dawn for the issue as an enduring national political priority. We’re optimistic about the latter.

For one thing, states that have accomplished the most legislatively have done so with broad backing. Take Texas, where Governor Abbott signed into law seven bipartisan pro-housing bills last year with the support of everyone from “business and homebuilders associations to groups representing ethnic and racial minorities, faith-based organizations, groups dedicated to property rights and free markets, and progressive groups focused on improving access to housing in job-rich cities.”

Also, states that have been at it for a while are starting to show results by an ultimate metric (and most winning message): more housing built. Case in point: Florida’s 2023 Live Local Act, which passed by 103 – 6 and 40 – 0 votes in the state’s House and Senate, respectively, and has been revised several times since, is credited with catalyzing 55,000 planned homes and apartments, with more than 12,000 in construction.

And in Nevada, where Republican Governor Joe Lombardo and the Democrat-controlled legislature in 2025 “worked together to address a crisis that touches every corner” of the state in a law to spur creation of 6,500 new homes, the state’s Housing Division has already committed two-thirds of newly available financing, reflecting administrator Steve Aichroth’s commitment to “get this money out the door as fast as possible, so we can have it revolve as fast as possible, so we can make it as effective as possible.”

There’s an encouraging trend emerging. A report from Yardi Matrix shows an “unprecedented surge” of more than 300,000 apartments built for renters who earn 80 percent or less of their area’s median income between 2020 and 2024. The rate of affordable apartment growth doubled that of overall multifamily construction during that period, the firm found. “New state laws are helping to drive the surge,” according to the New York Times.

We’d be remiss not to add that federal resources, especially in the hands of state-level administrators, from one-time infusions during Covid to annual appropriations of the HOME block grant, also have been an essential ingredient. Congress’ expansion last year of the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit is another big bipartisan federal commitment that’s paying off. House Housing Subcommittee Chairman Mike Flood of Nebraska last week praised the Nebraska Investment Finance Authority’s resulting ramped-up production.

For pro-housing policy and politics, in states and in DC, nothing succeeds like success.

Stockton-Williams-Washington-ReportStockton Williams | Executive Director

In This Issue

NCSHA Welcomes New Members
NCSHA recently welcomed these companies as Affiliate members: EliseAI, National Land Advisory Group, and Osprey Compliance Collective. If you have a partner who is interested in becoming a member, please contact membership@ncsha.org.

NCSHA Submits Comments on Mixed-Status, Work Requirement Rules
On April 21 and May 1, NCSHA submitted comments to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) on its proposed rules related to verification of eligible status and work requirements and term limits, respectively. NCSHA’s comment on the verification of eligible status, or “mixed-status,” rule expressed concern about the potential for the rule to force families to choose between splitting up or forfeiting affordable housing and remarked that the current proration policy balances the desire to keep families together and affordably housed with ensuring federal funds only pay for documented residents.

NCSHA’s comment on the proposed rule to allow public housing agencies to establish work requirements and term limits commended HUD for promoting residents’ self-sufficiency and expressed concerns regarding the difficulty of residents achieving self-sufficiency without effective supportive services, the lack of funding for such services, increased administrative burdens on program administrators and housing providers, and potential impacts on HUD-assisted housing residents.

FHFA, HUD Announce New Credit Score Policies
On April 22, HUD and the Federal Housing Finance Agency jointly announced the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) and Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (the Enterprises) will accept the VantageScore 4.0 and FICO 10T as eligible scoring models. The Enterprises are updating their selling guides with the new scores and are immediately accepting Vantage-scored loans from approved lenders; they will be accepting FICO Score 10Ts in the future.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, in separate statements also issued last Wednesday, noted the changes are being offered on a limited basis to approved lenders to help ensure operational readiness before full implementation occurs. The Enterprises also jointly published a Partner Playbook, which further describes the initiative and provides implementation milestones and FAQs. FHA’s implementation is expected to follow soon.

House Appropriations Committee Approves FY27 USDA Funding Bill
On Wednesday, the House Appropriations Committee voted to advance the Fiscal Year (FY) 2027 Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies Bill to the House for approval. The bill would provide $22.5 billion in discretionary funding for the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), a reduction of $675 million from the enacted FY26 level but nearly $2 billion more than requested by the Trump Administration earlier this year. The House has yet to announce when the bill will receive a vote on the House floor.

Many affordable housing programs administered by USDA would receive funding equal to FY26 enacted levels, including the Section 502 Single-Family Guaranteed and Direct Loan programs, the Section 515 Multifamily Direct Loan Program, and the Section 538 Multifamily Guaranteed Loan Program. The Section 521 Rural Rental Assistance Program would be funded at $1.795 billion, an $80 million or five percent increase over FY26 funding levels. The bill would also continue to authorize USDA’s pilot program to decouple rental assistance from properties with expiring USDA mortgages, raising the maximum per-year threshold from 1,000 to 5,000 units. For more program funding information on the bill, see NCSHA’s budget chart.

76 House Members Urge Build-to-Rent Legislation Change
On April 22, 76 members of the House of Representatives, led by the co-chairs of the congressional Real Estate and Build America caucuses, sent House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) and Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) a letter raising objections to Section 901 of the Senate-passed 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act, which would prohibit large institutional investors’ purchases of single-family homes, and urging the provision be stripped from the bill or substantially revised.

The House members argue that, as drafted, Section 901 is contrary to the bill’s overall goal of expanding housing opportunities and would result in lower housing supply by jeopardizing production of “build-to-rent” (BTR) housing. The letter specifically objects to the provision’s mandatory seven-year divestiture requirement for BTR housing and its sweeping definitions of ‘purchase’ and ‘investment control.’ The letter notes the requirement for investors to sell BTR housing within seven years would not only prevent investment in BTR housing but also push out renters in those homes, destabilizing housing for thousands of families.

NCSHA raised similar concerns in relation to single-family rental housing financed with the Housing Credit in a sign-on letter we led prior to the Senate vote to advance the legislation. Our letter made the point that the requirement to sell within seven years conflicts with requirements in Section 42 of the Internal Revenue Code, which mandates Housing Credit properties to be affordable rental housing for at least 30 years, with exceptions for certain housing exiting the program after Year 15.

The House and Senate have each passed differing versions of the legislation. Senate leaders, including leaders on the Banking Committee, have been pressing the House to take up and pass the bill as passed on the Senate floor, while leaders on the House Financial Services Committee instead seek to negotiate further adjustment with their Senate counterparts before advancing final legislation. As the election nears, with many competing priorities for floor time, there will be limited time for final action, imperiling enactment of a final housing bill.

House and Senate Approve Budget Resolution with Targeted Reconciliation Instructions
The House on April 29 adopted the FY26 budget resolution passed by the Senate last week with instructions intended to facilitate funding for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) in an upcoming reconciliation bill. The budget resolution does not envision reconciliation legislation enacting tax or other changes beyond funding for ICE and CBP. House passage occurred despite some Republican members favoring a broader reconciliation package to facilitate other conservative priorities that likely would not garner the votes needed to pass the Senate outside of the reconciliation process.

The House also voted this week to pass the FY26 Homeland Security bill funding agencies within the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) other than ICE and CBP, following Senate passage of the measure last month, ending the longest shutdown of a federal agency in history. A reconciliation bill — which will not be subject to a filibuster in the Senate — following the instructions laid out in the budget resolution is expected soon to fund those two agencies within DHS, putting to bed the FY26 appropriations process.

HUD and USDA Rescind Adoption of New Construction Energy Standards
Today, HUD and USDA published a Notice of Rescission of the “Final Adoption of Energy Efficiency for New Construction of HUD- and USDA-Financed Housing” published on April 26, 2024, as well as subsequent notices by both agencies related to extensions of effective dates for the standards rescinded by the notice. That 2024 final determination rendered all new home construction ineligible for an FHA- or USDA-backed mortgage loan unless the home was built according to the 2021 International Energy Conservation Code. As a result of the Notice of Rescission, the FHA and USDA loan programs will comply with the energy efficiency standards that were in effect prior to the publication of the 2024 final determination. On March 5 of this year, a court set aside and vacated the 2024 final determination as a result of a lawsuit filed by a coalition of 15 states and the National Association of Home Builders.

CFPB Finalizes Changes to Fair Housing Disparate Impact Rule
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) last week published a final rule narrowing its interpretation of what constitutes discrimination under the Equal Credit Opportunity Act (ECOA). ECOA prohibits mortgage lenders and other creditors from discriminating against credit applicants based on race, color, religion, national origin, sex, marital status, age, or receipt of government assistance. In the new rule, CFPB states ECOA does not permit a disparate impact claim, where a lender is accused of discrimination for practices and/or policies that are not intentionally discriminatory but that in practice benefit one population of consumers over another.

The rule also prevents for-profit entities from running Special Purpose Credit Programs (SPCPs) that use race, color, national origin, or sex for determining program eligibility. Further, the rule places strict restrictions on the extent to which an SPCP may use religion, marital status, age, or receipt of government assistance as eligibility criteria and requires for-profit lenders, before launching a SPCP, to submit a written plan to CFPB providing evidence as to the need for the program.

HUD Reopens Certain HOME Final Rule Provisions for Public Comment
HUD on Thursday published a supplemental notice of proposed rulemaking to revise or revoke certain provisions from the January 6, 2025, publication of the HOME Investment Partnerships Program: Program Updates and Streamlining final rule (HOME final rule). The provisions of the HOME final rule affected by Thursday’s announcement are delayed indefinitely pending HUD’s publication of a future final rule.

The proposed changes include:

  • Revising inspection language throughout the HOME final rule that would require the immediate correction of all health and safety deficiencies. The proposed rule would require immediate corrective action only for life-threatening deficiencies found.
  • Simplifying and streamlining HOME requirements for scattered-site manufactured rental housing projects.
  • Revoking a proposed provision that would allow participating jurisdictions to exceed the maximum per-unit subsidy for projects that meet certain green building standards.
  • Returning tenant protection language to its pre-HOME final rule state. HUD stated the HOME final rule’s tenant protections created “additional costs, increased burden, and deviated significantly from the requirements of the Cranston-Gonzalez National Affordable Housing Act and case law.” The proposed rule would retain language from the HOME final rule pertaining to notice periods for termination of tenancy or refusal to renew tenancy and what constitutes “good cause” for the termination of tenancy.
  • Requiring HOME units to have installed carbon monoxide detectors.

Comments on the proposed rule are due to HUD by June 1. To help inform NCSHA’s comments, please send your input to Glenn Gallo by May 25.

HUD Proposes Revisions to Equal Access Rule
On April 28, HUD issued a proposed rule that would revise its Equal Access regulations across a wide range of programs by removing references to gender identity and instead defining access, placement, and nondiscrimination protections based on sex, defined as an individual’s biological classification as male or female. The proposal would require HUD-assisted programs, including emergency shelters and other single-sex or sex-specific facilities, to provide services and accommodations based on a person’s sex rather than self-identified gender identity and would permit providers to request reasonable assurances or evidence to verify sex for placement purposes.

The changes would apply broadly across HUD programs, including Community Planning and Development grants and homeless assistance programs, and would preempt conflicting state or local requirements as a condition of federal funding. HUD states the rule is intended to align its regulations with Executive Order 14168 and address concerns related to privacy, safety in single-sex facilities, and religious liberty for faith-based providers, marking a significant shift from the 2012 and 2016 Equal Access rules with potential operational and compliance implications for state housing finance agencies and their partners.

Comments on the proposed rule are due June 29 to HUD. To help inform NCSHA’s comments, please send your input to Glenn Gallo by June 15.

Looking Ahead

Legislative and Regulatory Activities

State and Industry Events

  • May 1 | Early-Bird Registration Deadline: NCSHA’s Housing Credit Connect & Marketplace 2026 | Register
  • May 3 – 6 | 2026 Women’s Affordable Housing Network Summit | San Diego, CA
    Jennifer Schwartz will speak at this event.
  • May 4 – 6 | Mountain Plains Housing Summit 2026 | Boise, ID
    Garth Rieman will speak at this event.
  • May 6 – 7 | 2026 PHFA Housing Forum | Harrisburg, PA
    Garth Rieman will speak at this event.
  • May 7 – 8 | Novogradac 2026 Affordable Housing Conference | San Diego, CA
    Jennifer Schwartz will speak at this event.
  • May 14 | NCSHA Webinar: Mortgage Revenue Bonds 101 | Register
  • May 18 – 20 | Montana Housing Partnership Conference | Anaconda, MT
    Jennifer Schwartz will speak at this event.
  • June 2 – 5 | NCSHA’s Housing Credit Connect & Marketplace 2026 | St. Louis, MO

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