Twenty-three senators wrote to Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Director Russ Vought on June 30, urging him to order the immediate release of approximately $750 million earmarked for addressing the lack of affordable housing supply in the country.
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and the U.S. Treasury were allocated the funds to be to create more affordable housing units via the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. The funds have been held in the Affordable Housing Trust Fund and the Capital Magnate Fund since the budget bill passed last year.
The senators noted the funds could help rebuild or rehabilitate approximately 63,000 homes across the country at no cost to taxpayers, because the funds come from a portion of the profits from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
“Today, Americans are suffering through a housing affordability crisis,” the lawmakers wrote. “Single-family home prices and the average age of first-time homebuyers hit record highs last year, while more households are paying unsustainable amounts of rent than ever before. This crisis is nationwide: home prices have surged 40 percent in Texas, 43 percent in Iowa, 54 percent in Georgia, and 65 percent in Maine over the past six years – far outpacing wages and overall inflation. You have the ability to increase our nation’s housing supply and help address this crisis. With that in mind, we urge you to direct the release of these funds without any further delay.”
Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.), one of the lawmakers undersigned on the letter, doubled-down on the lawmakers’ request during Vought’s July 16 testimony before the Senate Banking Committee in Vought’s capacity as acting director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
Vought confirmed receiving the senators’ letter and that his office was looking to work “expeditiously” on apportioning those funds as quickly as possible.
Reed suggested Vought has had more than enough time to consider how best to release those funds and urged him to respond to the lawmakers’ inquiry “immediately.”
For more stories on affordable housing, visit our sister publicationThe Title Report's Housing Inventory & Attainability Watch library.