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NCSHA Washington Report | October 17, 2025

Published on October 17, 2025

NCSHA Washington Report - 2025

Coming at a time when housing affordability is a higher priority for more Americans than ever, the ROAD to Housing Act is the most wide-ranging housing bill to pass the Senate in memory. It isn’t the comprehensive vision of a single legislator but an assemblage of focused ideas, from Senators across the political spectrum, that in totality puts a new federal focus on many of the most acute pain points in the housing system.

Much of what’s in the bill affirms priorities of the Trump Administration. The president has promised to reduce regulations adding unnecessary costs to housing construction; the ROAD Act expedites federal environmental approvals and devolves more authority for performing them to states and local jurisdictions. It also cuts red tape to encourage more apartment owners to serve renters with housing vouchers.

President Trump recently called on home builders to speed up construction on lots they control, a process the bill could help accelerate by providing bonus amounts of block grant funding to communities that improve their pace of housing construction. And the bill authorizes HUD to prioritize Opportunity Zones — the president’s signature community development policy — for allocations of housing and revitalization programs.

In other areas, though, the ROAD Act takes a very different approach than HUD has so far under this administration. The bill, for example, envisions continuation of the successful HOME and PRICE programs, and the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness, all of which the administration has proposed to eliminate.

And while the Senate, through the ROAD Act, instructs HUD to assess the impacts of work requirements on residents and operators of public housing, “including the effects on homelessness, poverty, asset building, job attainment, and public housing agency administrative capacity,” the agency has apparently already decided, in a new regulation awaiting White House approval, to allow local authorities to impose them.

The biggest disconnect between the Senate’s vision in the ROAD Act and the administration’s approach, though, is over the role the federal government, primarily through HUD, should play in helping states and cities solve their housing problems.

The bill directs HUD to create a new home repair program, produce illustrative pro-housing land use and zoning policies, provide incentives for communities that speed up building permits, finance lower-cost housing models, and launch a pilot program to help low-income renters build assets, among other new activities. It envisions a proactive federal housing agency.

But the White House wants HUD to do much less than it currently does, let alone take on new responsibilities. It has proposed to cut the department’s budget in half, delayed release of appropriated funds, and reduced the workforce by 30 percent, with several hundred employees laid off last Friday.

The Senate Banking Committee, whose members include six of the 10 most conservative Senators, should insist that the housing bill it unanimously passed “after years of bipartisan committee work, stakeholder engagement, and multiple hearings” can be implemented effectively by the president’s cabinet agency for housing.

Stockton-Williams-Washington-ReportStockton Williams | Executive Director

In This Issue

Neale Honored with Leadership Award
During an October 6 ceremony, Virginia Housing CEO and NCSHA Board member Tammy Neale was recognized with the Virginia Business 2025 Women in Leadership Award. The award celebrates the professional accomplishments, civic engagement, and mentorship of top women executives who have demonstrated remarkable leadership and integrity while making an impact on their communities and Virginia as a whole.

Federal Shutdown Continues; Agencies Issue RIFs
The lapse in appropriations that began October 1 is now in its third week, with little sign of resolution on the horizon. On September 19, the House passed a continuing resolution (CR) to extend government funding through November 21 but has taken no further action since. Across the Capitol, the Senate has held several votes, all of which have failed to reach the 60-vote threshold required to proceed to debate, on the House-passed CR, as well as a competing Democratic measure that also would extend tax credits for health insurance premiums and limit the administration’s ability to withhold appropriated funds, among other provisions.

Meanwhile, numerous employees of federal agencies, including the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), received notices their positions would be eliminated as part of a reduction in force (RIF) process. Reports indicate as many as 442 HUD positions would be eliminated under the RIFs, including virtually the entirety of the Offices of Housing Counseling and Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity, as well as a number of positions in the offices of Community Planning and Development and Housing. Labor unions representing federal agency staff have filed suit, and the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California has issued a temporary restraining order blocking the administration from proceeding with the firings, at least for now.

IRS Publishes 2026 Housing Credit, PAB Volume Cap Amounts; Neglects to Include 12 Percent Housing Credit Increase
Last week, the Internal Revenue Service released Revenue Procedure 2025-32 establishing the 2026 per-capita and small-state minimum allocations for the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (Housing Credit) and private activity bonds (PABs). The revenue procedure reflects only the standard inflation adjustment, not the 12 percent increase enacted in H.R. 1 (the One Big Beautiful Bill Act), raising the Housing Credit cap to $3.05 per capita (from $3.00 in 2025) and the small-state minimum to $3,530,000 (from $3,455,000). NCSHA has reached out to the administration seeking a correction to the Housing Credit allocations. The PAB volume cap for 2026 is the greater of $135 per capita or $397,625,000, up from $130 per capita or $388,780,000 in 2025.

Trump, Pulte Post Notices on How GSEs Might Increase Home Building
President Trump and Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) Director Bill Pulte in recent weeks have taken to social media to urge large home builders and the government-sponsored enterprises (GSEs) Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to do more to increase the supply of housing. In a post on October 5, Trump suggested some large home builders could build more on empty lots they own and asked the GSEs to take action to help big home builders construct more homes. Pulte then posted on X to say he is “on it,” comment on the role and responsibility of big builders, and report he would meet with large builders individually. He also announced Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will start asking market participants to identify any mortgages that are financed by the big builders and sold to the GSEs. The administration has not yet proposed any further policy proposals for boosting housing construction, but there is a possibility some proposals will be included in an executive order the president may sign shortly after the federal shutdown ends.

FHFA Releases Proposed 2026–30 Strategic Plan
FHFA on Wednesday released its proposed strategic plan for 2026–30. The plan outlines the agency’s priorities as the regulator of the Federal Home Loan Bank (FHLB) system and the government-sponsored enterprises Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The proposed plan outlines three main strategic goals for FHFA: reliably overseeing Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, supervising the FHLBs, and efficiently managing its own agency. The plan lays out several objectives for each goal to help guide the agency’s efforts.

Most notably, the plan includes an objective to ensure the GSEs support efforts to expand housing supply and specifically cites GSE support for the Housing Credit investment market as a means of meeting the objective. The report also pledges that FHFA will ensure the GSEs and FHLBs continue to fulfill their statutory obligations to support affordable housing, such as the GSEs’ affordable housing goals and Duty to Serve requirements and the FHLBs’ Affordable Housing Programs. The proposed plan does not include a strategic goal from FHFA’s current strategic plan to “foster housing finance markets that promote equitable access to affordable and sustainable housing.”

FHFA will accept comments on the proposed plan until November 5. Contact Greg Zagorski by October 27 with any feedback you would like NCSHA to consider in our comments.

Looking Ahead

Legislative and Regulatory Activities

NCSHA, State HFA, and Industry Events

  • October 21 – 22 | ProLink Technology Live 2025 | Virtual
    Stockton Williams 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

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