Summary#
The HOME Reform Act of 2025 would amend the Cranston-Gonzalez National Affordable Housing Act, which governs the federal HOME housing program. Its stated goal is to encourage more decent, safe, sanitary, and affordable housing, with primary attention to rental housing. It is an introduced bill, not law.
- HUD could not restrict participating jurisdictions’ choices among rehabilitation, substantial rehabilitation, new construction, reconstruction, acquisition, or other eligible housing uses, except where another part of the Act explicitly allows it.
- Certain HOME funds could pay for infrastructure in jurisdictions that do not receive assistance under Title I of the Housing and Community Development Act of 1974, if the work is directly related to and within or next to specified affordable housing. Labor standards would apply.
- The bill would change income tests in several parts of the HOME Act to use a limit of 100% of area median family income, with adjustments for family size.
- It would recognize some rental units occupied by tenants with Section 8 assistance as affordable housing, if the tenant’s rent contribution and the total rent meet the program’s limits.
- It would change homeownership rules, including raising a stated income threshold from 95% to 110% of area median income, adding long-term affordability mechanisms, and allowing certain military and inheritance-related exceptions.
- It would create specified exemptions from federal environmental review under NEPA, reduce some repeat reviews, and exempt qualifying small projects from Section 3 requirements. It would also limit when Build America, Buy America requirements apply to HOME activities.
What it means for you#
- HOME-funded jurisdictions and housing providers: They could use eligible HOME funds for qualifying infrastructure near certain assisted housing. The Secretary of Housing and Urban Development must issue rules for this within one year of enactment.
- People using housing choice vouchers: A rental unit could count as affordable under the HOME Act when the tenant has Section 8 assistance, the tenant’s contribution is within the Section 8 limit, and the rent is no higher than the public housing agency approves.
- Some homebuyers and homeowners: The bill would change income rules and allow specified affordability arrangements, including shared-equity models and community land trusts. A participating jurisdiction may waive or suspend certain income qualifications for an owner with qualifying military orders; this would not be automatic.
- Heirs or beneficiaries: A home that qualified before its owner died could continue to qualify if it becomes the heir’s or beneficiary’s principal residence and that person assumes the owner’s duties tied to HOME funds, under terms set by the Secretary.
- Small-project recipients: Section 3 requirements would not apply to qualifying activities involving 50 or fewer units, if assistance goes to a state recipient or to a participating jurisdiction whose most recent annual allocation was under $3 million.
- People affected by housing projects: The bill would exempt specified project types from NEPA review under the HOME Act. It does not say that every other legal requirement would also be waived.
Money#
No publicly available information on the bill’s cost.
- The bill would allow certain existing HOME funds to pay for eligible infrastructure. It does not provide a spending estimate.
- The Secretary must issue rules on infrastructure funding and environmental-review changes, but the bill gives no staffing or rulemaking cost estimate.
- The bill would also remove a sentence from the HOME Act’s per-unit investment limit provision. Without the current text of that provision, the effect on funding limits is unclear.
What is unclear#
- The current Cranston-Gonzalez Act was not supplied, so the precise changes to existing definitions, income rules, per-unit limits, and trust-fund deadlines could not be checked.
- The bill does not set out how jurisdictions would apply the changed income rules or how HUD would oversee them.
- The Secretary would decide whether infill sites are substantially surrounded by development and would set terms for some exceptions. The bill does not spell out those decision processes.
- The bill does not state how much infrastructure funding would be available or how projects would be selected.
- The bill does not explain how the environmental-review exemptions would interact with other applicable laws or project reviews.
- The bill removes a sentence from the per-unit investment limit provision and removes an expiration provision for drawing HOME trust funds; their practical effects cannot be verified from the supplied text alone.
Case for#
- A possible argument for the bill is that it gives local jurisdictions more choice over how to use HOME funds for eligible housing.
- Allowing related infrastructure work could help address practical barriers to building or supporting affordable housing in places without the specified federal assistance.
- Recognizing qualifying voucher-assisted rentals could make it easier for those units to count toward HOME affordability rules.
- Limiting duplicate environmental reviews could reduce repeated work when a project’s scope, scale, and location stay substantially the same.
Case against#
- One concern is that broad NEPA exemptions could reduce environmental review for listed projects, including new construction of up to 15 units, without the bill describing project-specific review safeguards.
- The bill would loosen or change several income and affordability rules, but the supplied text does not show how those changes fit with the existing rules or affect who receives assistance.
- After 24 months, reserved funds left uninvested for community housing development organizations would go to a participating jurisdiction for other eligible activities, even without that organization’s material participation. This could reduce its role in deciding how those funds are used.
- It is unclear how much the new infrastructure, staffing, or rulemaking duties would cost, and the bill does not provide an estimate.