Today the U.S. Senate is moving forward on the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act, sponsored by Massachusetts’ own Senator Elizabeth Warren. This bill is one of the most significant pieces of federal housing legislation in decades. It aims to tackle the nationwide housing shortage by leveraging the power of the federal government to make it easier to build more homes, including by incentivizing local governments to reform restrictive local zoning. We, along with hundreds of pro-housing organizations across the nation are proud to support the bill.
However, there is one section that would have a devastating impact on the “build-to-rent” market, which builds 70,000-90,000 homes across the US annually.
By 3:00 PM TODAY, I ask that you call Senator Elizabeth Warren and ask that she fix the “build-to-rent” provision in Section 901 of the 21st Century Road to Housing Act.
We’ve included additional information below about this section and a phone script to assist you with the call.
As a lead sponsor of the bill, Senator Warren has a HUGE impact on the final language. We need to make sure that she knows that her pro-housing constituents both support this bill and would like to see the “build-to-rent” section changed.
Thank you for your help in this urgent request.
📲 Call Senator Elizabeth WarrenÂ
Senator Warren’s DC Office number: (202) 224-4543
Deadline: 3:00pm
Script
“My name is [YOUR NAME], and I am a constituent of Senator Warren and live in [CITY OR TOWN]. I am calling today to thank the Senator for her leadership in advancing the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act. While I’m broadly supportive of the bill, I ask her to support a proposed narrow change to provision 901 of the bill. Specifically, I support an amendment that focuses its restrictions on the markets where concentration of ownership is believed to be a problem – while preserving the ability to build needed new rental housing everywhere else. Thank you”
Why is this important?Â
The final text of the bill that came out in the Senate last week adds a new provision banning large investors from buying up homes. While banning investor purchases to ensure that our neighbors have access to homeownership is good, a consequence of the way the current language it is written is that any time an investor (defined as owning 350 homes or more) finances the construction of single family homes, duplexes, or attached townhouses, they are required to sell it to a homebuyer within 7 years.
While less common in Massachusetts, investor-financed construction of single family homes and duplexes is often the only way that working people can gain access to homes in suburbs across the country. This anti-renter provision could have a devastating impact on the build-to-rent market, which builds 70,000-90,000 homes across the US annually.
We support an amendment that would say that this 7-year disposition requirement only applies in metro areas where investors own more than 5% of all single-family homes. That means 383 out of 387 metro areas in the US would be able to keep building, and just a few metros where investors have a large presence would face the restriction on new building.
