Press Releases

Today, U.S. Representative Rick Larsen (WA-02) voted for comprehensive, bipartisan legislation to make housing more affordable across the United States (the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act).

“Families in Northwest Washington are struggling to afford their skyrocketing rent and don’t know if they will ever be able to buy a house of their own,” said Rep. Larsen. “This bill is not a be-all-and-end-all fix to the housing affordability crisis, but it provides real solutions to the barriers in the way of constructing more affordable housing and the challenges that renters face.”

The 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act would:

• Expand the number of homes, apartment complexes, and other housing options by reducing unnecessary regulatory barriers to new home construction.
• Prevent private equity firms from buying significant numbers of single family homes.
• Create a renter complaint hotline and resource center for reporting, monitoring and resolving renter disputes with large institutional investor landlords.
• Establish procedures for timely responses by the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and large institutional landlords and connects renters with State authorities.
• Require annual reporting on renter disputes and annual notification by large institutional landlords to HUD about the number and location of their properties.
• Support community financial institutions that provide critical financing to homebuyers and housing developers

The House of Representatives passed the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act on a 396-13 vote. The legislation will now be sent back to the Senate for approval.

Rep. Larsen voted for the original version of this bill in February (the Housing for the 21st Century Act) and been calling attention to the skyrocketing prices of gas, groceries, health care and housing for months.

The text of the bill can be found here.

A one-pager on the bill can be found here.

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