The 12 Titles / Title I
Title I: Opportunities for Housing
This title aims to expand housing access and supply through a mix of program reforms and pilot programs. It tightens quality control over HUD-funded housing counseling while guaranteeing delinquent borrowers a chance at counseling, pushes single-stair ('point-access block') apartment building codes, streamlines USDA rural infill housing approvals, requires localities receiving CDBG funds to publish databases of their undeveloped land, and creates pilot programs for small-dollar FHA mortgages and temperature sensors in federally assisted housing. It also directs HUD to publish national best-practice guidelines for state and local zoning reform.
§ 101 Reforms to Housing Counseling and Financial Literacy Programs Notable
This section overhauls HUD's housing counseling program. HUD must now conduct performance reviews of every organization receiving counseling grants and may compare individual counselors' results against default rates of counseled borrowers in comparable markets. Counselors found lacking competence can be required to take continuing education, be retested, and ultimately have their certification suspended after at least two failed retests. HUD can deny renewal of funding to noncompliant organizations, but must give 60 days' written notice and offer an informal conference where the organization can explain factors beyond its control. Separately, any borrower who is 30 or more days delinquent on an FHA, HUD Section 184/184A, VA, or USDA mortgage must be given an opportunity to participate in available housing counseling, with the cost for FHA loans paid by the Mutual Mortgage Insurance Fund if fund-solvency conditions are met.
Affects: housing counselors, housing counseling agencies, homeowners, delinquent borrowers, veterans, rural borrowers
§ 102 Federal Guidelines for Point-Access Block Buildings Notable
HUD must issue model code language, best practices, and technical guidance to help states, territories, tribes, and localities permit 'point-access block' buildings, meaning apartment buildings up to 6 stories served by a single internal stairway. Single-stair designs are currently barred by most U.S. building codes above 2-3 stories, so this guidance is meant to make small apartment buildings cheaper to build. HUD must weigh fire safety (sprinklers, smoke detection, egress), construction costs, and domestic and international single-stair code examples, and must coordinate with the International Code Council to get single-stair provisions into the International Building Code. HUD may also run a competitive grant program for pilot projects testing the safety and cost-effectiveness of these buildings, ending 7 years after enactment. Nothing in the section preempts state or local building codes.
Affects: homebuilders, developers, architects, local governments, renters, fire safety officials
- HUD: Issue point-access block building guidelines and model code language — 18 months after enactment (≈ January 11, 2028)
- HUD: Pilot grant program for point-access block buildings terminates — 7 years after enactment (≈ July 11, 2033)
§ 103 Exemption on Construction or Modification of Residential Housing Located on an Infill Site Notable
USDA no longer has to perform environmental studies or reports when funding construction or modification of rural housing on 'infill sites' under several Housing Act of 1949 programs (including Sections 502 direct/guaranteed loans, 504 repair assistance, 515 rental housing, and 538 rental loan guarantees). An infill site must already be served by infrastructure such as water, sewer, and roads; it cannot be a site served only by a road, a greenfield (undeveloped land such as farmland or woodland), or land in a census tract FEMA rates as very high or relatively high risk for wildfire, coastal flooding, or riverine flooding. Within 5 years USDA must report to Congress on whether the exemption sped up application reviews, cut administrative costs, and how it affected rural affordable housing.
Affects: rural homebuyers, rural renters, homebuilders, USDA borrowers
- USDA: Report to Congress on the effects of the environmental review exemption — 5 years after enactment (≈ July 11, 2031)
§ 104 Database of Publicly Owned Land Notable
Local governments that receive Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funds must maintain a searchable, publicly accessible online database identifying every parcel of undeveloped land they own. The goal is to make surplus public land visible to developers and the public as potential housing sites. Creating and maintaining the database becomes an activity that CDBG money can pay for. The requirement takes effect October 1, 2026.
Affects: local governments, developers, affordable housing advocates, the public
- HUD: CDBG grantee database requirement takes effect — October 1, 2026
§ 105 FHA Small-Dollar Mortgages Notable
HUD, through the FHA, may create a pilot program to boost lending of 'small-dollar mortgages' — loans of $100,000 or less secured by a 1-to-4-unit home that is the borrower's principal residence. Lenders often avoid these loans because fixed origination costs make them unprofitable, which shuts buyers out of lower-priced homes. The pilot may pay lenders incentives to originate small loans, adjust FHA fees and terms, give borrowers direct grants for down payments, closing costs, appraisals, and title insurance, and fund outreach and lender technical assistance. FHA must report annually to Congress on outcomes, risks to the Mutual Mortgage Insurance Fund, and 10 years of historical small-dollar lending data. The pilot ends 4 years after it starts, and the authority to launch it expires 3 years after enactment.
Affects: first-time buyers, low-income homebuyers, lenders, rural communities
- HUD: Window for HUD/FHA to establish the small-dollar mortgage pilot (permissive) — 1 year after enactment (≈ July 11, 2027)
- HUD: First annual report to Congress on pilot outcomes — 1 year after pilot establishment
- HUD: Pilot program terminates — 4 years after establishment
- HUD: Authority to newly establish a small-dollar mortgage pilot expires — 3 years after enactment (≈ July 11, 2029)
§ 106 Temperature Sensor Pilot Program
HUD must create a pilot program giving grants to public housing agencies and owners of federally assisted rental housing (public housing, project-based Section 8, Section 202 elderly housing, and Section 811 disability housing) to install internet-connected temperature sensors in units, with residents' written permission, to verify units meet heating and cooling requirements. Sensors must measure air temperature to a tenth of a degree and come from a HUD-approved list. Participants must track temperature-related complaints and violations, and HUD must set privacy standards for the data. HUD must publish an interim evaluation within 12 months of the pilot's start and a final evaluation within 36 months of its conclusion, comparing complaint rates before and after installation. The pilot ends 3 years after enactment.
Affects: renters, public housing residents, public housing agencies, landlords of assisted housing, elderly and disabled tenants
- HUD: Establish eligibility criteria for the pilot — 180 days after enactment (≈ January 7, 2027)
- HUD: Define 'temperature-related complaints' and 'temperature-related violations' — 180 days after enactment (≈ January 7, 2027)
- HUD: Establish standards protecting personally identifiable information — 180 days after enactment (≈ January 7, 2027)
- HUD: Publish interim evaluation report to Congress — 12 months after pilot establishment
- HUD: Publish final evaluation report to Congress — 36 months after pilot conclusion
- HUD: Pilot program terminates — 3 years after enactment (≈ July 11, 2029)
§ 107 Housing Supply Frameworks Notable
HUD's research office must publish guidelines and best practices for state and local zoning reform aimed at producing more housing at all income levels, within 3 years of enactment. Draft guidelines must go through Federal Register public comment and a task force of planners, developers, community members, housing agencies, local officials, and researchers. Recommended topics include cutting or eliminating parking minimums, allowing taller buildings and smaller lots, legalizing accessory dwelling units and duplexes-to-quadplexes by right, transit-oriented development, streamlined permitting with maximum review timelines, and impact fee reform. The guidelines are advisory only: HUD is expressly barred from penalizing any state or locality that declines to adopt them. The section also abolishes HUD's Regulatory Barriers Clearinghouse, and HUD must report to Congress within 5 years of the final guidelines on which states and localities adopted them and to what effect.
Affects: local governments, state governments, homebuilders, developers, renters, homebuyers, urban planners
- HUD: Publish final zoning framework guidelines and best practices — 3 years after enactment (≈ July 11, 2029)
- HUD: Publish draft guidelines for public comment and convene task force — within 2 years after enactment (≈ July 11, 2028)
- HUD: Report to Congress on state and local adoption of the guidelines — 5 years after final guidelines are published
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