Washington, D.C. — In response to Congress passing the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act, the most significant federal housing legislation in more than a generation and a major bipartisan step toward addressing America’s housing affordability crisis, the American Economic Liberties Project released the following statement:

“America’s housing crisis is not inevitable. It is the result of decades of policy choices that constrained housing supply, fueled financial speculation, and allowed Wall Street firms to treat homes as investment vehicles instead of places for people to live,” said Morgan Harper, Director of Policy and Advocacy at the American Economic Liberties Project. “The ROAD to Housing Act represents the most significant federal effort in decades to confront those challenges. By beginning to address the role of institutional investors in the housing market, Congress is taking an important step toward making housing more affordable for families across the country.”

“For too long, private equity firms and other institutional investors have used their access to capital to outbid families and acquire large swaths of housing stock, driving up costs for renters and prospective homeowners alike,” Harper continued. “The inclusion of measures addressing investor ownership reflects a growing bipartisan recognition that concentrated corporate power is making housing unaffordable for Americans across the country.”

Among many other pro-housing provisions, the ROAD to Housing Act would streamline federal permitting requirements (and exempt some infill housing developments altogether), authorize new grant programs for cities to construct affordable housing, and direct federal agencies to make regulatory changes to encourage more affordable manufactured and modular housing.

While the legislation marks substantial progress, additional action will be necessary to fully address the structural drivers of housing unaffordability. The Act requires large institutional investors to submit an annual report to the Treasury detailing their holdings of single family homes in every city and state where they own at least ten homes, which will help lawmakers and law enforcers track the impacts of existing single family rentals that were grandfathered in, as well as emerging build-to-rent trends. AELP will continue to advocate for boosting lending to support smaller homebuilders as well as stronger protections against financial speculation and large institutional investors that take advantage of housing scarcity.

Read AELP’s paper on institutional investors in Atlanta — “The New Rent Seekers” —  here.

Read AELP’s paper on how Wall Street killed local homebuilding and created our current housing crisis —  “Capital Crunch” — here.

Learn more about Economic Liberties here.