Behind the news:

What the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act would mean for Americans and Nevadans — if it passes

Workers leave a job site of single-family residential homes under construction at Cadence, a master-planned community in Henderson,Thursday, Jan. 22, 2026. For May, Nevada led the country in job growth, though it still is beset by one of the nation's highest unemployment rates. Photo by: Steve Marcus

By Las Vegas Sun Staff (contact)

Published Wednesday, June 24, 2026 | 2 a.m.

Updated Wednesday, June 24, 2026 | 9:20 a.m.

Editor’s note: “Behind the News” is the product of Sun staff assisted by the Sun’s AI lab, which includes a variety of tools such as Anthropic’s Claude and Google Gemini.

When was the last time a major piece of federal legislation drew enthusiastic support from both President Donald Trump and Sen. Elizabeth Warren?

The 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act, the most sweeping federal housing legislation in more than three decades, cleared the House on Tuesday by a 358-32 vote and the Senate on Monday by an 85-5 vote. [1] However, as it awaits Trump's signature, the bill's fate was thrown into question with the president saying today that he will not sign the bill until Congress passes the SAVE America Act, which would raise requirements for voting as the November election approaches.

“Today’s Housing News Conference and Signing is hereby canceled until such time as we pass the desperately needed SAVE AMERICA ACT, which I consider to be a National Emergency,” Trump said today.

If the measure does eventually get Trump's signature, for Nevada — a state grinding under one of the nation’s worst housing affordability crises, with population growth that shows no sign of slowing — the bill offers a potential lifeline.

A bill born from both chambers

The act’s full name, the Renewing Opportunity in the American Dream to Housing Act, captures its ambition. It is the product of a yearlong legislative back-and-forth between the Senate, where the Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee launched its version in summer 2025, and the House, which passed its own companion bill, the Housing for the 21st Century Act, by a 390-9 vote in February. [2]

The combined measure from the two chambers contains more than 40 provisions. [3]

"For the last two years, I have been advocating for a crackdown on corporate investors buying up homes, driving prices beyond the reach of Southern Nevada families. These investors already own tens of thousands of homes in the Las Vegas Valley and will be barred from purchasing any more under the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act," Rep. Dina Titus, D-Nev., said in a statement Tuesday.

Think of it this way: If the nation’s housing market were a car with a flat tire, years of tinkering with monetary policy and local zoning ordinances have amounted to little more than kicking the tire. This bill tries to change the tire — and maybe overhaul the engine while it’s in the shop.

What’s in the bill

The legislation attacks the housing shortage from multiple directions simultaneously.

Building more homes

At its core, the bill tries to make it easier and cheaper to build housing. It streamlines the National Environmental Policy Act review process for a broad range of federally supported housing activities, expanding “categorical exclusions” that allow projects to proceed without lengthy environmental studies. [5] It also expands the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s authority to delegate certain environmental review responsibilities to states, local governments and tribes — cutting out middlemen and speeding up development. [6]

"This bill will also boost our housing supply by streamlining federal permitting regulations for housing construction and modernizing HUD's HOME program which helps states and localities construct and rehabilitate affordable housing," Titus stated.

The bill directs HUD to publish guidelines and best-practice frameworks for state and local zoning and land-use policies, encouraging cities and counties to reform rules that block affordable housing construction. [6]

To make more homes financially viable, the act creates a competitive innovation fund at HUD to award grants to communities that successfully increase housing supply — essentially paying cities and counties for building more homes. [6]

Manufactured housing: Removing a costly barrier

One of the bill’s most consequential provisions removes a long-standing requirement that manufactured homes be built on a permanent steel chassis. That rule has long increased the cost of manufactured homes and created barriers to their classification as real property. [9]

The bill also establishes HUD as the primary federal authority on energy efficiency standards for manufactured homes and reauthorizes a competitive grant program for the construction of and improvements to manufactured housing communities. [10]

Why does this matter? About 18 million Americans live in manufactured homes. In Nevada alone, there are more than 69,000 such dwellings, according to the office of Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev. [11] For many Nevadans in rural areas, manufactured housing is a more affordable path to homeownership. [32]

Stopping Wall Street from buying up the neighborhood

This is the provision that makes strange political bedfellows of Trump and Warren, the progressive Democrat from Massachusetts — and it is the bill’s most politically charged element.

Under a section titled “Homes are for people, not corporations,” the legislation bars large institutional investors — defined as any for-profit entity that directly or indirectly controls 350 or more single-family homes — from purchasing additional single-family properties. [12]

The prohibition applies to purchases made 180 days after the bill becomes law, meaning existing portfolios would not be affected. [13] Certain exceptions apply, including for nonprofits, community land trusts and some categories of investor activity. [14]

Federal programs, modernized

The bill reauthorizes the HOME Investment Partnerships Program for the first time in 30 years. HOME is a federal program used to finance new construction and home repairs and to fund down-payment and rental assistance. Since 1992, it has built or preserved nearly 9,000 homes in Nevada, helped more than 1,350 families with rental assistance and supported more than 15,000 jobs in the state. [15]

The bill updates FHA multifamily mortgage loan limits for the first time since 2003. [17] Those limits determine how much the federal government will insure on loans for apartment buildings and other multifamily housing — higher limits mean more projects pencil out financially, which potentially means more units get built.

The legislation also creates a pilot program at HUD to expand access to FHA-backed mortgages under $100,000, intended to make it easier for buyers in lower-cost markets to obtain federal mortgage insurance on smaller loans — a category currently underserved. [18]

Rural housing and veterans

The bill reforms the USDA Rural Housing Service to help preserve affordable housing in rural areas. Nevada has 57 USDA properties serving more than 2,100 rural residents — properties that face deterioration and potential loss without federal reinvestment. [15] The legislation also includes provisions expanding housing access for veterans. [20]

What are potential downsides?

Despite the overwhelming bipartisan support, critics have raised questions about the bill's real-world impact.

Analysts caution that even if construction increases, new housing takes years to come online, meaning prices and rents are unlikely to fall quickly. [32]

The investor restrictions have drawn particular scrutiny: Larger institutional investors own roughly 0.34% of U.S. housing stock and about 3% of the total single-family rental supply, leading some to argue that targeting such a small share of the market may not meaningfully improve affordability — and could even reduce the availability of rental housing. This could potentially create the biggest barrier for Black, Hispanic, and younger, economically challenged families. [34]

Some conservative lawmakers have gone further, including Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, questioning whether the federal government should be setting limits on who can purchase homes at all. [35]

Nevada’s crisis in context

Nevada is ground zero for the housing affordability emergency this bill attempts to address.

For more than 60 years, Nevada’s population growth has been among the fastest in the nation, creating a persistent need for more housing, an urgent shortage in supply and a crisis of affordability. [24]

According to the National Low Income Housing Coalition’s 2026 Gap Report, only 16 affordable rental homes are available for every 100 extremely low-income households in Nevada. Statewide, there is a shortage of more than 100,000 units for those who make 50% or less of area median income. [25]

Experts predict nearly 400,000 people will move to the Las Vegas Valley over the next 10 years. Recent estimates from Clark County show the area needs between 80,000 and 96,000 affordable rental units. Between 2019 and 2023, the number of vacant, available units for rent or sale dropped from 45,299 to 33,670 — while the population continued to grow. [26]

Since 2010, Nevada has gained an average of 24,000 new residents annually, yet housing supply has struggled to keep up. [27]

The land squeeze is stark: Only about 36,000 acres of privately owned, developable land remain in the Las Vegas Valley, surrounded by thousands of acres of federal holdings, some of which the government may make available for development. [26]

Meanwhile, business entities bought more than 17% of all single-family homes in Clark County between 2015 and 2025 — precisely the pattern the ROAD to Housing Act’s investor restrictions are designed to curb. [25]

A report last year ranked Nevada as the state with the second-highest number of cost-burdened renters and homeowners, with more than 50% of Nevada renters and homeowners paying more than 35% of their monthly income on rent or mortgage. Nevada also ranked last in the availability of affordable housing for low-income households. [3]

Nevada’s delegation goes on record

Nevada’s entire congressional delegation supported the bill.

In the Senate, both Cortez Masto and Sen. Jacky Rosen, D-Nev., voted for the measure.

Rosen issued a statement applauding Monday’s passage. “Thousands of hardworking Nevadans are being squeezed by the high costs of homeownership and rent, forcing them to make tough decisions,” she said. “The bipartisan 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act is a great step toward addressing the housing crisis and tackling the issue from multiple angles. I am proud to have helped pass this housing package and expect it to be on its way to the president’s desk to become law.” [3]

Cortez Masto championed inclusion of two of her own legislative priorities — her HOME Investment Partnerships Reauthorization and Improvement Act and her Preservation and Reinvestment Initiative for Community Enhancement Act. She urged the House to act. “Making sure Nevadans have access to quality affordable housing has always been one of my priorities,” Cortez Masto said. “Having a roof over your head isn’t just shelter — it’s security, it’s health care, and it’s stability. Congress must finish what we started and get the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act to the president’s desk.” [29]

In the House, all four Nevada members — Democrats Dina Titus, Susie Lee, Steven Horsford, and Republican Mark Amodei — have voted yea throughout the bill's various stages [30]

The bipartisan case

The bill’s most prominent Republican champion is Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina, chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, who helped shepherd it through two years of negotiations. Scott said the legislation was the result of “years of work to lower costs, expand housing supply, cut red tape, protect taxpayers and help more Americans achieve the dream of homeownership.” [1]

For Democrats, Warren made the affirmative case from the Senate floor last week. “There is so much in this bill,” she said. “Each piece, directing us toward increasing the supply of housing, bringing down the cost, and making housing something that is not just a Wall Street investment, but is actually there for American families.” [1]

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., called it “a significant bill to make life more affordable for hardworking Americans.” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said the bipartisan bill “shows Americans how we should govern.” [1]

Scott and Warren together called Monday’s vote “an important step toward addressing America’s housing affordability crisis and giving families across this country a fair shot at the American dream.” [31]

For Nevada, a state battered by a population surge outpacing every effort to house its residents, those words carry particular weight. Only 16 affordable rental homes exist for every 100 extremely low-income households statewide, and just 13 per 100 in the Las Vegas metro area. [24] Whether a bill of this size and ambition can move that needle — against decades of structural inertia — remains to be seen. But the rare spectacle of Washington acting on housing, and acting broadly, is itself a signal that something has changed.

"This is an important first step in addressing the affordable housing crisis in Southern Nevada and making the dream of homeownership a reality for more families," Titus stated Tuesday.

Sources

[1] https://www.cbsnews.com/news/senate-passes-landmark-housing-affordability-bill/

[2] https://www.congress.gov/crs-product/R48849

[3] https://www.rosen.senate.gov/2026/06/22/rosen-helps-pass-bipartisan-bill-to-lower-housing-costs-increase-supply/

[4] https://www.scotsmanguide.com/news/presidents-desk-in-sight-for-road-to-housing-act-as-senate-passes-landmark-bill/

[5] https://www.cbsnews.com/news/road-to-housing-act-home-prices-senate/

[6] https://www.hud.gov/stat/cpd/environment-energy-regulations

[9] https://www.lincolninst.edu/land-wise/removing-permanent-chassis-requirement-manufactured-homes/

[10] https://www.naco.org/news/house-passes-bipartisan-housing-21st-century-act

[11] https://www.cortezmasto.senate.gov/news/press-releases/passed-cortez-masto-bills-to-tackle-housing-crisis/

[12] https://ifp.org/road-section-901/

[13] https://www.gtlaw.com/en/insights/2026/3/the-21st-century-road-to-housing-act-considerations-for-large-institutional-investors