On July 10, 2026, the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act goes into effect, bringing with it a broad, bipartisan set of federal housing policy changes aimed at reducing barriers to housing production, improving existing homes, and helping bring down housing costs over time.
At Greater Ohio Policy Center, we know that Ohio’s housing challenges are complex. Communities need more housing options, existing homes need reinvestment, and local governments need practical tools to make good development easier. While no single bill can solve the housing crisis, the ROAD to Housing Act includes several provisions that reflect the kind of “silver buckshot” approach GOPC has long advocated for: multiple, targeted solutions that together can improve housing supply, quality, and affordability.
Reducing Local Barriers to Housing Production
We are encouraged by the legislation’s focus on helping local governments reduce barriers to building new housing units. The Act provides guidance and some grant support for communities working to modernize local processes and make it easier to produce the housing residents need.
This includes support for “pattern books,” which are catalogues of architectural plans that communities can pre-review and provisionally approve. GOPC, in partnership with Ohio REALTORS®, published Housing Ohio: Tools for Development, a statewide toolkit that includes free building plans, zoning adjustment recommendations, and guidance for local pre-approved plans programs. The goal is to help communities reduce soft costs, streamline permitting, and support infill development in established neighborhoods.
When a local government reviews plans in advance and establishes a pre-approval program, builders and homeowners may be able to move more quickly through the permitting process. For smaller communities, land banks, community development corporations, and emerging developers, these tools can help make high-quality infill housing more feasible.
Helping Older Homes Stay in Good Repair
The Act also includes a pilot program and forgivable loans for “whole home” repairs on aging housing stock. This is especially important in Ohio, where a 60% or more of homes in the state were built before 1979 (with higher concentrations of older homes in Ohio’s legacy cities).
Investing in existing homes is a critical part of any housing strategy. In many cases, preserving and repairing homes already located in walkable neighborhoods with existing infrastructure is more economical than building new housing from the ground up. Whole-home repair programs can help residents remain safely housed while keeping valuable housing stock in productive use.
Supporting Infill Housing in Established Neighborhoods
Another promising provision streamlines environmental regulations for small and infill housing projects. This matters for communities that have spent years demolishing homes that could not be saved, often leaving behind vacant lots in neighborhoods that already have streets, utilities, schools, parks, transit, and other amenities.
Making it easier to return housing to these sites can help bring residents back into existing neighborhoods and make better use of infrastructure that is already in place. For Ohio’s legacy cities and older suburbs, this kind of infill development is essential to neighborhood stabilization and long-term revitalization.
Expanding Capital for Workforce and Senior Housing
The Act also makes regulatory adjustments for banks that should help increase lending capital and investment in workforce, senior, and affordable housing. Access to capital is a persistent challenge for housing production, particularly for projects that serve moderate-income households or older adults. By making it easier for financial institutions to support these projects, the legislation can help fill an important gap in the housing ecosystem.
Addressing Institutional Real Estate Investors
The legislation also includes provisions related to institutional real estate investors. Under the Act, for-profit companies that own more than 350 single-family homes are defined as institutional real estate investors. Existing firms are grandfathered in, but new firms are limited in how many single-family homes they may own moving forward.
Importantly, nonprofit housing organizations—particularly those helping low- and moderate-income residents access homeownership—are not subject to these provisions. This distinction helps ensure that mission-driven organizations can continue working to expand affordable homeownership opportunities in their communities. Build-to-rent groups are also exempted from the institutional investor provisions.
The Act also requires institutional real estate investors to notify the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development annually of their status. HUD will also create a call-in number and website for tenants living in units owned by institutional investors who are experiencing problems.
No Silver Bullet, But Important Silver Buckshot
It will take time for the ROAD to Housing Act’s provisions to be implemented and produce measurable results. In the short term, communities should not expect housing prices to fall significantly or new supply to appear overnight. Housing markets are complicated, and the barriers to production and affordability have built up over many years.
Over the long term, however, the Act includes several meaningful tools that can help more Americans access quality housing they can afford. By supporting local permitting reforms, encouraging pre-approved plans, investing in home repair, making infill development easier, expanding capital for needed housing, and creating guardrails around large-scale single-family ownership, the legislation takes aim at multiple parts of the housing challenge.
For GOPC, this kind of multi-pronged approach is encouraging. There is no silver bullet for housing affordability, but there is silver buckshot. The 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act offers several pieces of that solution, and if implemented well, it can help strengthen housing supply, improve housing quality, and support more affordable choices in Ohio and across the country.