As Democrats and Republicans in Congress remain at odds over everything from vaccines to immigration, they may have found one issue they can actually agree on: building more housing.
This week, Rep. Sam Liccardo, a Democrat representing Silicon Valley, introduced a bill with a Republican co-sponsor aimed at making it easier for cities to use federal funds for affordable housing. It’s part of a broader effort by congressional lawmakers on both sides of the aisle to bring down rising housing costs nationwide by removing barriers to home construction.
“There are plenty of things on housing that Republicans and Democrats are not going to agree on,” Liccardo said. “But there are enough that we do agree on that are essentially around expanding housing supply.”
Liccardo, a freshman congressman and former San Jose mayor, said he hopes his bill, co-sponsored by Rep. Mike Flood, a Republican from Nebraska who chairs the House Subcommittee on Housing and Insurance, will be included in a bipartisan housing package now working its way through the Republican-controlled Congress.
That package includes dozens of proposals to slash housing regulations, including tying some federal dollars to the progress of local governments in easing building restrictions and spurring new home construction.
It mirrors many of the policy ideas that housing advocates have long championed in California.
“There’s an old saying in national politics that you want to keep your eyes on California, because what happens there tends to follow the trade winds across the country,” said Matthew Lewis, communications director with the pro-housing group California YIMBY, which is not involved with the bill.
Congressional lawmakers’ focus on building more housing comes as soaring rents and home prices, once primarily an issue for populated coastal states, have become a growing concern for voters nationwide as cities struggle to add enough housing to keep up with demand. During last year’s presidential race, housing was a main campaign talking point for the first time in decades.
Lewis said that while the proposals in Congress offer some vindication for local housing advocates, he’s skeptical about the extent to which federal policy can influence local land-use decisions.
Even as California has passed a flurry of new housing laws, Lewis said it often remains a challenge to convince state and local lawmakers to embrace policies advocates say are necessary to build enough homes to lower costs. Some are dubious of helping private developers build market-rate housing or concerned about gentrification and preserving the character of local communities. Others worry about crossing the state’s powerful labor unions, which often demand a say in updating housing regulations.
“I’d rather get the reforms done than be vindicated,” Lewis said.
Liccardo’s bill would eliminate a rule requiring local governments that receive funding through a specific federal grant program to partner with nonprofits when using the money for new affordable housing projects — mainly apartment buildings for low- and middle-income renters earning under specified amounts.
He’s also backing bipartisan bills to roll back environmental reviews for some federally subsidized affordable housing projects and make it easier for homeowners to take out loans for accessory dwelling units, also known as ADUs.
The city of Mountain View worked with Liccardo on the bill to do away with the nonprofit partner requirement. Mayor Ellen Kamei said the goal is to simplify the costly and time-consuming process currently required to select a partner, rather than to stop working with nonprofit developers altogether.
“It’s about streamlining as much as possible to get the housing on the market,” she said.
The Non-Profit Housing Association of Northern California, a group advocating for nonprofit developers, said it was still reviewing the proposal and declined to comment on its potential impact.
The new legislation comes as the Trump administration has proposed drastic cuts to federal housing programs, including slashing billions of dollars in funding for rental aid vouchers that support more than 80,000 low-income households across the Bay Area each month. The administration has also proposed a two-year limit on federal rental aid for able-bodied adults.
Still, it’s unclear whether Republicans in Congress will agree to the steep cuts, or the two-year cap, in the upcoming federal budget.
Liccardo, however, noted that a $5 billion pandemic-era program that funds “emergency” vouchers for people at risk of homelessness is set to run out of money at the end of next year. He worries that his Republican colleagues have little appetite for setting aside more funding.
“That will push tens of thousands of families into the street,” he said.