I
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION H. R. 855
To establish an Office of Housing Innovation in the Department of Housing
and Urban Development to assist in exploring and developing new ap-
proaches for increasing and diversifying the supply of housing and for
meeting the challenges of housing shortages, housing affordability, and
traffic congestion, and for other purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
JANUARY31, 2025
Mr. D
ESAULNIERintroduced the following bill; which was referred to the
Committee on Financial Services
A BILL
To establish an Office of Housing Innovation in the Depart-
ment of Housing and Urban Development to assist in
exploring and developing new approaches for increasing
and diversifying the supply of housing and for meeting
the challenges of housing shortages, housing afford-
ability, and traffic congestion, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Housing Innovation 4
Act’’. 5
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SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 1
The Congress finds that— 2
(1) housing should be considered a critical com-3
ponent of our national infrastructure; 4
(2) existing shortages of affordable housing op-5
tions in many regions are contributing to long com-6
mutes, financial stress, environmental pollution, and 7
public health risk; 8
(3) new approaches in the planning, design, and 9
construction of housing need to be explored for di-10
versifying housing options available to the workforce; 11
and 12
(4) greater coordination of existing Federal re-13
sources across agencies could significantly expand 14
and diversify the supply of housing. 15
SEC. 3. OFFICE OF HOUSING INNOVATION; ASSISTANT SEC-16
RETARY. 17
(a) A
SSISTANTSECRETARY FOR HOUSINGINNOVA-18
TION.—Section 4(a) of the Department of Housing and 19
Urban Development Act (42 U.S.C. 3533(a)) is amend-20
ed— 21
(1) in paragraph (1), by striking ‘‘7 Assistant 22
Secretaries’’ and inserting ‘‘9 Assistant Secretaries’’; 23
and 24
(2) by adding at the end the following new sub-25
section: 26
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‘‘(i) OFFICE OFHOUSINGINNOVATION.— 1
‘‘(1) A
SSISTANT SECRETARY.—There shall be in 2
the Department an Assistant Secretary for Housing 3
Innovation, who shall be appointed by the President. 4
‘‘(2) E
STABLISHMENT.—There is established in 5
the Department the Office of Housing Innovation, 6
which shall be headed by the Assistant Secretary for 7
Housing Innovation. 8
‘‘(3) F
UNCTIONS.—The Assistant Secretary of 9
Housing Innovation shall have primary responsibility 10
within the Department for— 11
‘‘(A) accumulating and disseminating in-12
formation regarding innovative practices and 13
successful case studies of new approaches for 14
increasing and diversifying the supply of hous-15
ing, especially in urban metropolitan regions 16
and surrounding rural regions that are facing 17
challenges of housing shortages, housing afford-18
ability, and traffic congestion; 19
‘‘(B) carrying out activities, including ad-20
ministering the grant programs under the 21
Housing Innovation Act, to encourage partner-22
ships in exploring and developing innovative so-23
lutions to the challenges to housing supply re-24
ferred to in subparagraph (A); 25
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‘‘(C) coordinating with other offices within 1
the Department, including the Office of Hous-2
ing, the Office of Policy Development and Re-3
search, and the Office of Community Planning 4
and Development, and other Federal agencies, 5
including the Department of Transportation, to 6
recommend policies that address workforce 7
housing needs; and 8
‘‘(D) providing technical assistance to local 9
governments in undertaking or preparing for 10
planning and policy reforms to increase housing 11
units and housing supply diversity. 12
‘‘(4) D
ETAILEES.—The Secretary shall ensure 13
that the staff of the Office of Housing Innovation 14
includes, at all times— 15
‘‘(A) two detailees from the Department of 16
Transportation, who shall include— 17
‘‘(i) one having expertise in transit 18
issues or active transportation issues, or 19
both; and 20
‘‘(ii) one from the Build America Bu-21
reau having expertise on the Transpor-22
tation Infrastructure Finance and Innova-23
tion Act (TIFIA) program and the Rail-24
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road Rehabilitation and Improvement Fi-1
nancing (RRIF) program; 2
‘‘(B) one detailee from the Environmental 3
Protection Agency having expertise on the pub-4
lic health impacts of housing and community 5
development; and 6
‘‘(C) one detailee from the Department of 7
Energy having expertise on renewable energy 8
and energy efficiency upgrades for low- and 9
moderate-income communities. 10
The Secretary shall consult with the heads of the 11
agencies referred to in this paragraph to provide for 12
such details and such details shall be made on a re-13
imbursable basis.’’. 14
(b) A
MENDMENTS TO TITLE5, UNITEDSTATES 15
C
ODE.— 16
(1) P
OSITIONS AT LEVEL IV OF EXECUTIVE 17
SCHEDULE.—Section 5315 of title 5, United States 18
Code, is amended in the undesignated item relating 19
to Assistant Secretaries of Housing and Urban De-20
velopment by striking ‘‘(8)’’ and inserting ‘‘(9)’’. 21
(c) C
ONFORMINGAMENDMENT.—Paragraph (1) of 22
section 4(a) of the Department of Housing and Urban De-23
velopment Act (42 U.S.C. 3533(a)(1)) is amended by 24
striking ‘‘7’’ and inserting ‘‘8’’. 25
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(d) AUTHORIZATION OFAPPROPRIATIONS.—There is 1
authorized to be appropriated for necessary salaries and 2
expenses of the Office of Housing Innovation of the De-3
partment of Housing and Urban Development 4
$50,000,000 for fiscal year 2026 and each fiscal year 5
thereafter. 6
SEC. 4. GRANTS FOR LOCAL PLANNING FOR HOUSING. 7
(a) A
UTHORITY.—The Secretary of Housing and 8
Urban Development (in this Act referred to as the ‘‘Sec-9
retary’’), acting through the Assistant Secretary of Hous-10
ing Innovation, shall carry out a program to make grants 11
under this section to eligible localities for undertaking 12
planning efforts and associated regulatory reforms that 13
address the housing needs of such areas. 14
(b) E
LIGIBLELOCALITIES.—For purposes of this 15
section, the term ‘‘eligible locality’’ means a unit of gen-16
eral local government that is located within an urbanized 17
area, as such term is defined by the United States Census 18
Bureau of the Department of Commerce. 19
(c) G
OALS.—Local plans developed using amounts 20
from grants under this section shall address all of the fol-21
lowing goals: 22
(1) Increasing the supply of housing units with-23
in the jurisdiction of the grantee or within certain 24
defined areas within such jurisdiction, including 25
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neighborhoods around existing or planned transit fa-1
cilities and job centers. 2
(2) Improving the affordability of the housing 3
supply within the jurisdiction of the grantee or with-4
in certain defined areas within such jurisdiction, in-5
cluding neighborhoods around existing or planned 6
transit facilities and job centers. 7
(3) Diversifying the housing supply within the 8
jurisdiction of the grantee or within certain defined 9
areas within such jurisdiction to include more multi-10
family housing options or newer and less common 11
forms of housing, such as multifamily housing fo-12
cused on smaller private spaces and more shared 13
amenities, micro-unit housing, housing developments 14
that incorporate co-working spaces, and housing for 15
students. 16
(4) Improving commute times to job sites, re-17
ducing congestion, or reducing vehicle miles traveled 18
within the region in which the locality is located. 19
(d) U
SE.—The Secretary shall ensure that amounts 20
from a grant under this section shall be used only for costs 21
associated with a housing planning process that addresses 22
the goals in subsection (c), including public outreach, com-23
munity meetings, preparation of planning documents, and 24
research and studies in support of such planning efforts. 25
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(e) SELECTION.—The Secretary shall award grants 1
to eligible localities submitting applications under sub-2
section (g) that are selected to receive grants under a com-3
petition based on criteria established by the Secretary, 4
which shall include the following criteria: 5
(1) The extent to which the eligible locality out-6
lines a planning process that will facilitate progress 7
toward the goals under subsection (c), including the 8
potential changes or updates to local policies and 9
regulations (such as zoning ordinances, parking re-10
quirements, general plans, and specific plans) that 11
such a planning process will aim to affect. 12
(2) The extent to which the eligible locality 13
demonstrates how the planning process will address 14
the needs of the metropolitan region within which 15
the eligible locality is located by providing housing 16
for the existing and projected workforce demand. 17
(3) The extent to which the eligible locality pro-18
vides details of the planning actions it intends to 19
take, including public outreach activities and actions 20
for consideration for formal policy adoption of plan-21
ning elements and recommendations. 22
(4) The extent to which the eligible locality 23
specifies a timeline for completion of its planning 24
process, including potential dates for consideration 25
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for formal policy adoption by the local governing 1
body. 2
(5) The extent to which the eligible locality 3
demonstrates collaboration with regional planning 4
efforts and coordination with the relevant metropoli-5
tan planning organization that manages regional 6
planning for the area within which the locality is lo-7
cated. 8
(f) L
IMITATION ONAMOUNT.—A grant under this 9
section for an eligible locality may not exceed $2,000,000. 10
(g) A
PPLICATIONS.—The Secretary shall provide for 11
eligible localities to submit applications to the Secretary 12
for grants under this section, which shall contain such in-13
formation as the Secretary may require. 14
SEC. 5. GRANTS FOR RESEARCH AND PILOT PROJECTS. 15
(a) A
UTHORITY.—The Secretary, acting through the 16
Assistant Secretary of Housing Innovation, shall carry out 17
a program to make grants under this section to eligible 18
partnerships for the purposes of carrying out research and 19
pilot studies to support, inform, and advise local govern-20
ments on their plans for new housing and community de-21
velopment. 22
(b) E
LIGIBLEPARTNERSHIPS.—For purposes of this 23
section, the term ‘‘eligible partnership’’ means a partner-24
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ship of entities and institutions that includes at least one 1
of the following entities: 2
(1) A unit of local government. 3
(2) A college, university, or other research insti-4
tution. 5
(3) A nonprofit organization. 6
(c) U
SE.—Amounts from a grant under this section 7
may only be used for research and pilot studies that are 8
designed to study and investigate activities and measures 9
for improving housing and commuting for the workforce 10
in a community, including— 11
(1) measures to improve the commuting experi-12
ence between transit stations and homes (commonly 13
referred to as the ‘‘last mile’’); 14
(2) programs for accommodating higher edu-15
cation students within the community; 16
(3) programs for facilitating home-sharing for 17
elderly residents; 18
(4) plans and measures for integrating business 19
and commercial activity with residential neighbor-20
hoods; 21
(5) plans and measures for increasing transpor-22
tation options improving mobility within residential 23
neighborhoods; 24
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(6) programs for learning and disseminating in-1
formation about modular building techniques and 2
other approaches to reducing housing construction 3
costs; 4
(7) plans or programs for improving public 5
health through changes in the built environment, 6
such as safer streets that are more conducive and 7
welcoming to pedestrian activity; 8
(8) measures to evaluate the impact of housing 9
development in the community on the long-term so-10
cial mobility and economic prospects of residents; 11
and 12
(9) such other measures, plans, and activities 13
as applicants may propose, but only if the Secretary 14
approves such proposals as consistent with the goals 15
under section 4(c). 16
(d) L
IMITATIONS ONAMOUNT.—A grant under this 17
section for an eligible partnership may not exceed the less-18
er of— 19
(1) $500,000; or 20
(2) in the case only of an eligible partnership 21
that has previously received a grant under this sec-22
tion, the amount that the eligible partnership cer-23
tifies, as the Secretary shall require, that the part-24
nership will contribute from non-Federal sources for 25
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activities described in subsection (c) that are as-1
sisted with such grant amounts. 2
SEC. 6. GRANTS FOR EDUCATION ACTIVITIES. 3
(a) I
NGENERAL.—The Secretary, acting through the 4
Assistant Secretary of Housing Innovation, shall carry out 5
a program under this section to make grants to partner-6
ships that include at least one academic institution for 7
providing support for educational and community out-8
reach programs that are focused on issues related to hous-9
ing, community development, and regional planning. 10
(b) L
IMITATIONS ONAMOUNT.—A grant under this 11
section for a partnership may not exceed the lesser of— 12
(1) $200,000; or 13
(2) in the case only of a partnership that has 14
previously received a grant under this section, the 15
amount that the partnership certifies, as the Sec-16
retary shall require, that the partnership will con-17
tribute from non-Federal sources for educational 18
and community outreach programs described in sub-19
section (a) that are assisted with such grant 20
amounts. 21
SEC. 7. GAO REVIEW. 22
Not later than the expiration of the 3-year period be-23
ginning on the date of the enactment of this Act, the 24
Comptroller General of the United States shall conduct 25
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a review of grant programs under sections 4, 5, and 6 1
of this Act to analyze the effectiveness of such programs 2
and shall submit a report containing the results of such 3
review and any conclusions resulting from such review to 4
the Committee on Financial Services of the House of Rep-5
resentatives and the Committee on Banking, Housing, and 6
Urban Affairs of the Senate. 7
SEC. 8. REGULATIONS. 8
The Secretary may issue any regulations necessary 9
to carry out this Act. 10
SEC. 9. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS. 11
(a) F
UNDING.—There are authorized to be appro-12
priated to the Secretary of Housing and Urban Develop-13
ment to carry out this Act $100,000,000 for each of fiscal 14
years 2026 through 2032 of which, in each fiscal year— 15
(1) 90 percent shall be available only for grants 16
under section 4; 17
(2) 5 percent shall be available only for grants 18
under section 5; and 19
(3) 5 percent shall be available only for grants 20
under section 6. 21
(b) S
OURCE OFFUNDING.—It is the sense of the 22
Congress that the funding to carry out this Act provided 23
pursuant to subsection (a) should not result in a reduction 24
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of Federal funding for any existing affordable housing 1
program or programs. 2
Æ
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