Federal Housing Bill Becomes Law Without Trump's Signature

The most significant federal housing legislation in decades became law at midnight without President Donald Trump's support.

Trump canceled plans to sign the 21st Century Road to Housing Act on June 24 after it passed with support from broad, bipartisan majorities in both chambers of Congress. Trump had said he wouldn't sign it until the Senate passed a bill requiring voters to provide a photo ID to prove their citizenship.

He reiterated that position Friday morning, saying in a social media post that he wouldn't sign the housing bill "in PROTEST over the fact that the United States Senate is not capable of passing the SAVE AMERICA ACT." 

But the president declined to veto the housing bill ahead of a Friday night deadline, after which it automatically became law without his signature.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren, one of the bill's sponsors, posted on social media just as the clock struck midnight that the housing bill had become law. 

"Trump refused to sign it, but he couldn't stop it," Warren said in the post on X. "This law is GROUNDBREAKING. It will build more housing, bring down costs, and for the first time, stop private equity from buying up homes."

The legislation includes new restrictions on investment in single-family homes — in some cases capping the number of homes an investor can own at 350 — but it didn't include the controversial rules on build-to-rent projects from previous versions of the bill. 

Those BTR restrictions had raised alarms in the real estate industry and contributed to the lengthy timeline for Congress to finalize the bill. It went back and forth between the House and Senate with votes on several versions before the final passage in each chamber on June 22 and 23. 

The bill has a wide range of other housing policy changes beyond the SFR sector.

It creates incentives for localities to reduce entitlement timelines, including a $200M annual competitive grant program rewarding municipalities that increase housing supply. It also eliminates the chassis requirement for manufactured homes, which will make them cheaper to build, and it increases the amount banks can invest in the affordable housing sector. 

These steps and others in the bill will likely help some new housing developments move forward, but real estate leaders don't believe they will be a game-changer for the industry. Instead, they see it as a positive sign that Congress is taking action on housing and hope it will be the first in a series of steps to reform federal policy to address the housing crisis. 

"No one thing is going to be magical, but put together, they will start creating a better environment," National Multifamily Housing Council President Sharon Wilson Géno said last month of the bill’s various provisions. "We can now show housing is an important issue, it’s bipartisan in nature."

Road to Housing was a rare example of bipartisan cooperation in a polarized Congress as lawmakers sought to take action on affordability ahead of the midterm elections. A Harris Poll released this week found that 95% of U.S. adults believe the country is facing an overall affordability crisis, with 45% saying they are having trouble affording housing. 

The nation faces a shortage of more than 7.1 million homes for renters considered extremely low-income, according to a National Low Income Housing Coalition report last year. Housing construction has been slowing, with multifamily starts in May declining 40% from the prior month and 14% year-over-year. 

Real estate industry leaders celebrated the passage of the Road to Housing Act as a step in the right direction toward solving that crisis. 

"For the millions across the country struggling with rising rents and home prices, 21st Century ROAD to Housing creates a real opportunity to expand housing supply, lower costs, and make it easier to find an affordable home," Enterprise Community Partners CEO Shaun Donavon said in a statement Friday shortly before the bill became law.

The National League of Cities, an organization representing municipalities, also applauded the bill's passage into law.

"We are particularly pleased that this legislation preserves local zoning authority, avoids unfunded mandates for local governments and aligns with local infrastructure needs," President Kevin Kramer said in a statement. "Local governments will have the tools they need to be an effective partner to the federal government as this is rolled out across the country."