Congress Passes 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act

June 24, 2026 — Press Release

Legislative Package Includes NCLC Priorities to Address Housing Affordability and Supply, and Improve Access to Financing in Underserved Communities

WASHINGTON – Today, Congress passed the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act legislative package. Advocates praise the legislation, which is designed to expand homeownership opportunities by increasing housing supply, strengthening community development programs, and making homeownership more affordable and equitable for low- and moderate-income families and communities of color. 

“Homeownership is out of reach for many, and hard to maintain for others. The racial homeownership gap for Black and Latino families as compared to white homeowners is vast, and rural homeowners need better tools to keep their homes when they face financial hardship,” said Alys Cohen, director of federal housing advocacy and acting co-director of federal advocacy at the National Consumer Law Center (NCLC). “The ROAD Act offers real progress toward equitable access to affordable housing and authorizes a key long-term disaster relief program.” 

In particular, the package includes the Reforming Disaster Recovery Act, which NCLC and more than 550 other organizations strongly supported. Under the act, the Community Development Block Grant Disaster Relief (CDBG-DR) program will be authorized for three years. The Act includes key safeguards to help ensure that federal disaster support reaches all impacted households, including the lowest-income and most marginalized survivors who are often hardest-hit by disasters and have the fewest resources to recover. 

The package also includes the Rural Housing Service Reform Act, which will help rural homeowners keep their mortgages affordable. 

“Homeowners with Direct Loans from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, unlike borrowers in the private market or with other federal lending programs, have not been able to extend their loan terms to reach an affordable payment,” said Steve Sharpe, senior attorney at NCLC. “The bill gives the agency authority to modify the loans of low-income, rural homeowners to keep their homes affordable, an option already available to most other borrowers.”

The legislative package also includes numerous provisions to help address housing affordability, equity, and financing in underserved communities. These include provisions that would: 

• Establish a pilot program to increase access to small-dollar mortgages (section 105, FHA Small Dollar Mortgages);
• Provide grants to manufactured housing communities to preserve affordability, address critical infrastructure needs, and create new homeownership opportunities (section 304, Preservation and Reinvestment Initiative for Community Enhancement (PRICE) Act, support letter here);
• Make progress on addressing appraisal bias by requiring mortgage lenders to maintain procedures to allow consumer-initiated requests for second appraisals, or reconsiderations of value, when they believe there may be an issue with their appraised home value (section 704, based on the Appraisal Modernization Act);
• Prioritize heirs property owners, owners of inherited family homes who often lack access to credit, mortgage relief, and disaster assistance, by commissioning a report to identify solutions for these homeowners (section 804, based on the HEIRS Act); and
• Create a pilot grant program for comprehensive home repairs not covered by other federal programs, supporting low-income homeowners of single-family, inherited, or manufactured homes, and small landlords whose units serve as affordable housing (section 202, Whole-Home Repairs Act).

The legislation also directs the Treasury Department to work with other agencies to craft regulations for investors purchasing single family homes to protect consumers from harm. As NCLC’s research has found, programs claiming to offer a pathway to homeownership are too often built to fail. 

“This bi-partisan legislative package moves us closer to becoming a nation where all people can count on housing stability and equity,” said Cohen. “We thank members of Congress for standing with struggling homeowners and getting this legislation over the finish line.” 

Related Resources

• Letter in Support of Including the Reforming Disaster Recovery Act in the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Bill Package, May 28, 2026
• Letter to House Leadership on 21st Century ROAD to Housing Vote, May 18, 2026
• Letter to U.S. House In Support of PRICE Act, March 25, 2026
• Letter to Senators Thune, Schumer in Support of the Bipartisan 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act, March 6, 2026
• Issue Brief: Policy Recommendations: Ways to Prevent Built-to-Fail Land Contracts and Lease-Options From Hijacking the American Dream of Homeownership, August 2024