ICYMI: Now Law: Rep. Lee Helped Pass Most Significant Housing Reform in Decades
WASHINGTON, D.C. – The bipartisan 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act, which Congresswoman Susie Lee (NV-03) helped pass, became law on Saturday, July 11, 2026 – despite Trump’s best efforts to hold it hostage. This bill, the most significant piece of housing legislation in nearly four decades, will lower housing costs by cracking down on corporate homeownership and making it easier to build housing here in southern Nevada.
“It’s no secret how expensive it is to buy a home or even afford rent here in Las Vegas. On top of that, one in four homes are owned by big institutional investors that are jacking up the prices for Nevada families,” said Congresswoman Susie Lee. “That’s why I helped pass this bipartisan housing bill to crack down on corporate investors and make it easier to build more homes families can afford. But, the President didn’t want to give Nevadans relief and chose to sit on it for a week to prove a political point. Nevadans deserve better. Despite this unnecessary delay, families will finally get the relief they need.”
Recently, Lee led nearly a dozen battleground members to call on President Trump to sign the legislation. Despite Republicans and Democrats coming together to overwhelmingly pass the bill, President Trump refused to sign it as Americans saw their housing costs skyrocket, even calling it “unimportant.” The bill automatically became law without the President’s signature on July 11, 2026.
Across the country, Americans are feeling the impacts of the housing crisis. Nationwide, the average age of a first-time homebuyer reached a record-high of 40-years-old. In Nevada, median rents have nearly doubled over the last decade, and Las Vegas residents need to make over $72,000 annually to comfortably afford rent – nearly a 40% increase since 2020.
Key provisions of the bill include:
- Prohibiting large institutional investors that already own more than 350 properties from purchasing certain single-family homes.
- Reauthorizing and expanding eligibility for the HOME Investment Partnership Program, including increasing the maximum eligible income.
- The HOME program has invested $264.1 million in Nevada since 1992, which has helped build or preserve 8,910 homes, provide rental assistance to over 1,350 families, support more than 15,800 jobs, and generate roughly $1 billion in local income.
- Increasing flexibility for the use of Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funds, including authorizing the use of funds for construction of new affordable housing.
- Clark County receives approximately $8.5 million annually from HUD in CDBG funding, which may be used for a variety of activities that support low- and moderate- income communities.
- Permanently excluding veterans’ disability payments from annual income calculations under the Department of Housing and Urban Development Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing Program (HUD-VASH).
- VASH is a joint effort between the HUD and the VA, where HUD allocates “Housing Choice” Section 8 vouchers across the country. These vouchers allow Veterans and their families to live in market rate rental units while VA provides case management services. Veterans’ disability income will no longer be considered when applying for the HUD-VASH vouchers. From 2008-2024, HUD-VASH collectively provided over 2,000 vouchers to support Nevada’s veterans.
This bill includes key provisions to broaden access to homeownership, expedite building of manufactured housing, make available small-dollar mortgages, better protect borrowers and families living in public or assisted housing, enhance federal oversight of housing providers, and lay the groundwork for the development of new homes families can afford across America.
KSNV-NBC 3: News 3 Live at Three-Thirty
July 10, 2026
- Here's Nevada Congresswoman Susie Lee from last week, when President Trump canceled the signing ceremony.
- “In our state, Clark County is facing one of the most severe housing crises in the country.
- “In fact, we have the worst shortage of affordable rental units in the entire country.
- “And let's just be clear: I think we can all agree that buying or even renting a home should not be out of reach for Americans.
- “We should live in a country where one job should be enough to own a home, to afford health care, to afford a vacation once a year, to retire with dignity. and that's exactly what we've been fighting for.”
- The bill takes aim at investors buying up housing, which the Congresswoman has said is a key issue because 1 in 4 homes are actually owned by investors right here in Clark County.
The Nevadan: Instagram Post
July 7, 2026
- Nevada Rep. Susie Lee had a blunt message for Trump on a bipartisan housing bill: “Sign the damn bill.”
- Lee says Clark County’s housing crisis is too urgent for political games, especially after the legislation passed overwhelmingly in both the House and Senate.
Congresswoman Lee has consistently worked to build more housing families can afford across southern Nevada. She led and helped get signed into law the bipartisan Accelerating Appraisals and Conservation Efforts (AACE) Act to speed up appraisals and approvals for Nevada housing projects and cut governmental red tape that drives up housing costs. Congresswoman Lee is also a cosponsor of the Housing Oversight and Mitigating Exploitation (HOME) Act to help lower housing costs for Nevadans by cracking down on price gouging by corporate investors who are buying up housing stock and driving up home prices.
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