Three Shaheen-Led Bills to Lower Housing Costs, Improve Affordable Housing Pass in Bipartisan Housing Package

Three Shaheen-Led Bills to Lower Housing Costs, Improve Affordable Housing Pass in Bipartisan Housing Package

**Senate passes bipartisan housing package including three Shaheen-led bills with broad bipartisan support**

(Washington, DC) – Today, the U.S. Senate advanced three commonsense bills led by U.S. Senator Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) as part of a bipartisan housing package to address the high cost of housing and increase the supply of affordable units in the Granite State and across the country.

The 21st Century Renewing Opportunity in the American Dream (ROAD) to Housing Act includes three of Shaheen’s bills—the Strategy and Investment in Rural Housing Preservation Act, the Streamlining Rural Housing Act and the Preservation and Reinvestment Initiative in Community Enhancement (PRICE) Act—that will preserve affordable rural housing, make it easier and less expensive to build new housing and protect lower-income renters. The bipartisan package now heads to the U.S. House of Representatives.

“Countless Granite State families are struggling to afford a home, between a persistent shortage of affordable housing and President Trump’s tariffs making building additional homes much more expensive—especially in the rural parts of our state,” said Senator Shaheen. “We need innovative, bipartisan solutions at the federal level to increase the supply of affordable housing in New Hampshire and drive down costs. I’m proud the Senate passed legislation I lead in a bipartisan housing package that will help people in New Hampshire who are grappling with rising costs by boosting the preservation and building of affordable homes.”

The Strategy and Investment in Rural Housing Preservation Act, which Shaheen has championed for years, preserves housing units in rural areas and ensures that hundreds of thousands of low-income tenants in rural areas are able to maintain access to safe and affordable housing. Shaheen's bill would protect access to affordable housing for families in rural areas that are often elderly or disabled, who are at risk of losing rental assistance through the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), by allowing rental assistance to continue even after the USDA mortgage on the property is paid off.

The Streamlining Rural Housing Act aims to cut red tape and streamline rural housing regulations between the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and USDA by requiring the two agencies to enter into a memorandum of understanding to align housing standards. The bipartisan bill would simplify the process to build housing, lowering the cost and shortening project timelines for developers.

The Preservation and Reinvestment Initiative in Community Enhancement (PRICE) Act would permanently authorize a grant program to invest in manufactured housing communities, especially resident-owned communities, providing funding for home improvements and community upgrades like roads, water or sewer systems for thousands of Americans each year.

The 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act would also:

• Create a pilot program at HUD to offer grants and forgivable loans to low and moderate-income homeowners and small landlords to address home repair needs and health hazards.
• Establish new HUD programs to share best practices for zoning and land-use and work with communities to establish preapproved housing designs to help expedite local construction processes and build more homes.
• Empower states, local governments and Indian tribes to streamline reviews and increase housing development by simplifying the environmental review process.
• Speed up critical repairs and safety improvements for homeowners by modernizing outdated review requirements.
• Improve transparency for veteran homebuyers by requiring that mortgage notices include information, including comparative costs, about the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs’ home loan program.
• Provides flexible funding for communities that are building more housing supply, which can be used to improve community infrastructure, build housing and supplement water and sewer grants.

As a senior member of the U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee and Ranking Member of the Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration and Related Agencies (Ag-FDA) Subcommittee, Shaheen has continually worked to ensure New Hampshire communities have the federal funding needed to tackle the housing affordability crisis. In the Fiscal Year (FY) 2026 Ag-FDA Appropriations bill that was signed into law, Shaheen fought to fully fund the Rental Assistance program. The bill also includes key provisions from the Strategy and Investment in Rural Housing Preservation Act. Additionally, the FY 2026 appropriations bills invest $1.25 billion in the HOME Investment Partnerships Program to help build new housing across New Hampshire and support grant programs that aid state and local efforts to remove barriers to housing construction.

Shaheen recently visited the Normandin Square Apartments—a 60-unit apartment community where the majority of units are affordable—to tour ongoing renovation efforts with officials from the Laconia Housing Authority. Shaheen secured $750,000 in Congressionally Directed Spending for the renovation project in the bipartisan FY 2026 government funding legislation.

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