21st Century ROAD to Housing Act
What does the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act do?
HR 6644 is a House bill sponsored by Rep. J. French Hill (R-AR). A 12-title package built around increasing the housing supply. It pushes states and localities to ease zoning, streamlines federal environmental reviews for housing, reforms HOME, CDBG, rural, manufactured, and veterans housing programs, and creates new grant and pilot programs. It also includes non-housing provisions: easing rules for small and new community banks, barring large investors from buying single-family homes, and prohibiting the Federal Reserve from issuing a central bank digital currency. A broad housing-supply and program-reform package that also eases community-bank rules, bars large institutional investors from buying single-family homes, and prohibits a Federal Reserve digital dollar.
Did HR 6644 pass? Where it stands
As of July 17, 2026, HR 6644 has passed the Senate.
Status: Passed Senate
Latest vote: House Passed 358–32 on June 23, 2026
Outlook: Very Likely
Key provisions
- Zoning and Housing-Supply Reform
- HUD must publish state and local zoning best-practice guidelines within 3 years
- Abolishes the Regulatory Barriers Clearinghouse
- Single-stair building guidelines for residential buildings up to 6 stories
- Streamlined Reviews and Loan Limits
- Reclassifies many HUD housing activities as exempt from NEPA environmental review
- Raises FHA per-unit multifamily mortgage limits (e.g. $38,025 to $167,310)
- USDA rural infill housing exempted from environmental study
- New Grant and Pilot Programs
- Innovation Fund authorizes $200M/year FY2027-2031 for high-supply localities
- RESIDE pilot converts vacant commercial buildings into housing
- Family Self-Sufficiency escrow pilot for up to 5,000 families
- Program Reforms
- Reauthorizes and reforms the HOME program; income limit set at 100% of area median
- Establishes a CDBG long-term disaster-recovery program and fund (3-year sunset)
- Rental Assistance Demonstration cap raised from 455,000 to 555,000 units and made permanent
- Manufactured Housing and Veterans
- Allows HUD-code manufactured homes built without a permanent chassis
- Excludes VA disability benefits from income for HUD-VASH eligibility
- Adds a VA Home Loan disclosure to the Uniform Residential Loan Application
- Community Banks
- Lets small banks treat custodial deposits up to 20% of liabilities as non-brokered
- Raises the bank "public welfare investment" cap from 15% to 20%
- Eases capital and application rules for newly formed community banks
- Institutional Investors and Digital Currency
- Bars large investors (350+ single-family homes) from buying more single-family homes
- Penalty up to $1M per violation, with proceeds funding the HOME program
- Prohibits the Federal Reserve from issuing a central bank digital currency
Last updated July 15, 2026