The Planning Lady

For two years now I’ve joined the American Planning Association in Washington D.C. to advocate for impactful housing policy at the federal level. Last year I felt out of my depth having never participated in our political system before. I wasn’t sure what to expect and instead was told to expect the unexpected–the meeting could be in a hallway, you were likely meeting with staffers, but congressperson’s could always pop into the meeting, they might have read the materials sent ahead, or have no idea what you are talking about. It was my job in about 15 minutes to make the case for supporting the bills that would advance housing policy in the right direction.

Fast forward to year two and a full year in my current role as manager of our housing programs with the city and I felt far more prepared. I not only understand the process better, but have a wealth of knowledge about the housing situation in Nebraska as well as the asks we had for congress. One ask, that congress fund CDBG, HOME, Pro Housing, and Choice Neighborhoods is one that personally impacts me and my staff. While CDBG has made it into both the House version and Senate version of the T-HUD bill, HOME, PRO, and Choice did not make the House cut. It was easy to show what would be lost in Lincoln alone were HOME to be cut from the final T-HUD bill. Habitat for Humanity and NeighborWorks Lincoln build many homes each year with assistance from our HOME funding allocations and over 30 homebuyers receive downpayment assistance to buy their first home.

Our second ask was to support the ROAD to Housing Act that the Senate just passed out of committee. At over 300 pages, this document combines dozens of housing related bills that have been introduced in the past few years that have bipartisan support. It has been decades since such a sweeping housing bill has been brought forward with the potential to make a significant impact on the housing crisis if moved forward. The bill includes programs ranging from improving financial literacy to supporting new construction and rehabilitation of housing units. A few include:

• Housing Supply Frameworks Act: directs HUD to serve as an information gateway publishing guidelines and best practice frameworks for state and local zoning and land use policies
• Whole-Home Repairs Act: creates a HUD pilot for state and local government repair programs, providing grants and forgivable loans to eligible homeowners and landlords for home repairs and modifications
• Build Now Act: a potentially concerning provision for some communities, tying their CDBG allocations to housing production, giving bonuses to improving communities and reductions for lagging grantees
• Better Use of Intergovernmental and Local Development (BUILD) Housing Act and Unlocking Housing Supply Through Streamlined and Modernized Reviews Act: both streamline environmental reviews for certain types of housing projects
• Accelerating Home Building Act: provides grants for local governments to assist with creating pre-approved housing plans to streamline construction
• Build More Housing Near Transit Act: incentivizes applications for federal transit funding to adopt housing policies like transit oriented development, that supports more density around transit
• Housing Supply Expansion Act: eliminates the permanent chassis requirement for manufactured homes
• Modular Housing Act: directs HUD to review FHA construction financing programs to eliminate barriers to developing modular housing

These are just a handful of the forty programs included in the bill. A full summary of ROAD can be found at Bipartisanpolicy.org. Most of what is included are either policy related or reauthorize existing programs. There are only a handful of new programs that would include pretty minimal price tags.

Next steps for this bill and our ask to our representatives during this Fly In was for the Senate to bring this bill to the floor for a vote and for the House to create their own companion bill that would move this forward. It’s uncertain at this stage, but there have been talks of a scenario, where the Senate would attach the bill to the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) to move the bill forward quickly.

While the wheels of government do not always move quickly, it does allow for opportunities like this for the public and professionals to weigh in on key bills like ROAD or the impact that major program cuts like loosing HOME would have in our communities. While APA was on The Hill, several other groups advocating for programs like Head Start and health programming were there in force, visible from their coordinating shirts. Hundreds of individuals were blending with the congressional staffers weaving their way amongst tourists as they moved from building to building. I always enjoy watching it all unfold as I rush around among the crowds myself with the goal to improve housing policy.