Lee Helps Pass Bipartisan Legislation to Lower Housing Costs

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Yesterday, Congresswoman Susie Lee (NV-03) voted in support of H.R. 6644, the Housing for the 21st Century Act, a bipartisan housing package that makes long overdue improvements to federal housing programs in order to increase housing supply and lower costs for American families.

“We need to build more housing families can afford. I hear from folks daily who are struggling to keep a roof over their head, and they deserve housing that is safe, stable, and affordable,” said Congresswoman Susie Lee. “This commonsense, bipartisan bill is a meaningful and important first step towards lowering costs and making the dream of home ownership a reality for Nevadans.”

Key provisions of the bill include:

• 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 secured 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. 

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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