Weekly Column: Addressing The Housing Supply Shortage

The 21^st Century Renewing Opportunity in the American Dream (ROAD) to Housing Act takes meaningful action to address affordability. The law, enacted in July, reduces unnecessary federal red tape, expands housing opportunities, modernizes outdated programs for the first time in more than 30 years and encourages the development of more affordable housing options—all without spending a single federal dollar.

Housing affordability has become one of the biggest challenges facing Idaho families. One of the fundamental problems is that we simply are not building enough homes. Idahoans have consistently raised this issue with me in meetings, as well as in my statewide housing survey conducted last year.

The 21^st Century ROAD to Housing Act focuses on increasing supply rather than creating new federal spending programs. If we want housing to become more affordable, we must make it easier and less expensive to build homes. This law removes barriers that make housing more expensive and time-consuming to build by:

• Reducing unnecessary regulatory barriers;
• Streamlining permitting and development;
• Modernizing federal housing programs;
• Expanding manufactured and modular housing;
• Improving rural housing programs; and
• Encouraging local solutions to increasing housing production.

I received more than 5,000 responses to a statewide housing survey I conducted last year asking for input from Idahoans on their views of the challenges driving housing affordability in the state. I released the final report in June. The key themes that emerged in the final report included rising construction and land costs, limited housing supply, workforce and labor shortages, zoning delays and regulatory barriers, infrastructure constraints and the growing effect of out-of-state or institutional investment in local housing markets.

With Idahoans’ views foremost in mind, as Chairman of the Senate Finance Committee and a senior member of the Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs, I worked to secure several provisions in the final law that include:

• The Housing Supply Expansion Act modernizes the federal definition of "manufactured housing" to include modular and prefabricated homes built without a permanent chassis, expanding access to innovative, lower-cost housing options and increasing housing supply.

• The Rural Housing Services Reform Act streamlines and modernizes the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Rural Housing Service, making rural housing programs more efficient and improving homeownership opportunities for families in rural communities.

• The Reducing Homelessness through Program Reform Act reduces unnecessary federal bureaucracy while encouraging locally driven solutions to homelessness by reforming the Housing Choice Voucher Program and improving coordination among community service providers.

• The Housing Unhoused Disabled Veterans Act permanently excludes veterans' disability compensation from annual income calculations for U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development-Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing (HUD-VASH) housing assistance, helping more disabled veterans qualify for stable housing.

• The Helping More Families Save Act establishes a pilot escrow savings program that automatically enrolls eligible families in HUD's Family Self-Sufficiency program, helping families build savings and move toward greater financial independence and long-term homeownership opportunities.

• The Housing Supply Frameworks Act helps states and local communities identify and remove barriers to housing development by providing best practices, technical assistance, and data-driven strategies to increase housing supply while preserving local control over zoning decisions.

The new law removes a number of federal obstacles that have slowed construction for years and helps create an environment where builders can get more homes on the market faster. I will continue to use the feedback from my 2025 Housing Survey to guide further actions in the Senate to strengthen housing opportunities for Idahoans.

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