Housing for the 21st Century Act
Floor Speech
Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 6644, the Housing for the 21st Century Act, sponsored by myself and, of course, by Representatives Hill, Cleaver, and Flood.
Our housing and homelessness crisis has reached a breaking point, as millions of Americans each night struggle to find a decent, stable, and affordable place to live. The struggle has real faces of our children's teachers, working mothers, veterans, and, of course, children from all over the country. The struggle is in our rural towns, urban areas, and suburban neighborhoods across America.
On any given night, 800,000 people are experiencing homelessness in the United States of America. Rents nationwide have soared by 47 percent, and home prices have skyrocketed 57 percent. Incomes haven't kept pace with these increases, which means housing eats up more and more of a family's paycheck.
As the lead Democrat on the House Financial Services Committee, it has been my mission to fight to end this homelessness and housing crisis. The Housing for the 21st Century Act is a critical first step in that mission.
Passed in Committee with overwhelming bipartisan support, H.R. 6644 sets the stage for building and preserving more affordable homes in our neighborhood. It makes many long overdue improvements to housing programs, expands local development opportunities, and broadens access to homeownership.
H.R. 6644 also includes a dozen bipartisan provisions to help small banks like community development financial institutions, the CDFIs, and minority depository institutions, the MDIs. It helps meet the housing and other needs of our constituents.
The bill also addresses concerns from the 2023 banking crisis that will now promote a safe, sound, and competitive banking system, one that doesn't threaten our housing markets or our economy.
This package represents a historical, bipartisan agreement. I am proud that Mr. Hill and I, along with Mr. Flood and Mr. Cleaver, have been able to work together to prioritize the housing needs of millions of Americans and advance this legislation.
Mr. Speaker, I also want to highlight House and committee Democrats who worked tirelessly with me on this package. H.R. 6644 includes 25 provisions that come directly from bills championed and introduced by House Democrats and another 16 provisions that House Democrats co-led.
I am excited that it includes my bill, H.R. 5077, which would allow cities to use CDBG funds toward affordable housing construction.
It also includes H.R. 6774, which would finally create a pilot program at the Federal Housing Administration to offer small-dollar mortgages.
It includes my bill, H.R. 6773, which directs cities across America to finally publish a database of their unused land so that developers may be able to bid on it and build more housing.
Mr. Speaker, I am pleased that it includes my bill, H.R. 4544, to encourage the formation of new banks including CDFIs and MDIs so that borrowers will have more options when they want to buy a home.
While we come today to pass this initial bill, let me be clear that much more work is needed. We can't pass this bill, call it a night, and then claim that this affordable housing and homelessness crisis is over. A significant problem warrants a significant response, which means that we need significant Federal investments to solve this crisis.
Mr. Speaker, I hope that this administration is watching today and learns something about true bipartisanship and getting things done for the American people. Our bill is the type of bipartisan work that is needed to tackle the crisis facing Americans. Among meaningless tweets, empty promises, costly tariffs, and ridiculous policies like the 50- year mortgage, while this affordability crisis rages on, Congress can act tonight to support Americans who are looking for real housing solutions.
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