There is a shortage of affordable housing across America, and the Democratic-led Congress is working to make sure all of our citizens have a place to call home. People in towns, cities, and suburbs across the nation are struggling for decent places to live, and the House has passed legislation to help fill that critical need.

Learn more about the 110th Congress' work responding to the foreclosure crisis>>

The 110th Congress is acting to strengthen the housing market and the economy, expand affordable mortgage loan opportunities for families at risk of foreclosure, and strengthen consumer protections against risky loans in the future. Problems in the subprime mortgage markets have helped push the housing market into its worst slump in 16 years. 

We have made real progress in responding to the subprime mortgage crisis – passing crucial reforms to the Federal Housing Administration so it can help people at risk of foreclosure stay in their homes, pushing financial institutions to create more affordable housing options, and working on comprehensive anti-predatory lending legislation to stop these bad loans from being made in the first place--strengthening consumer protections against abusive practices and making sure that consumers get mortgages they can repay.

On July 23, the House passed the most comprehensive response yet to the American mortgage crisis, which was signed into law on July 30. The American Housing Rescue & Foreclosure Prevention Act, H.R. 3221, will help families facing foreclosure keep their homes, help other families avoid foreclosures in the future, and help the recovery of communities harmed by empty homes caught in the foreclosure process. To shore up the housing market and ensure the availability of affordable home loans, the bill would put a tough, independent new regulator in charge of the housing Government Sponsored Enterprises, or GSEs (Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and the Federal Home Loan Banks), which are vital to both the financial markets and American homeowners. The new regulator will be far better prepared to quickly and effectively respond to issues affecting the safe and sound operation of these enterprises. The centerpiece of the bill will help significant numbers of hard-working American families in danger of losing their home refinance into lower-cost government -insured mortgages they can afford to repay – at no cost to the American taxpayer.

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Watch Speaker Pelosi speak in support of the bill>>

On November 8, 2007, the House passed the Homeowners’ Defense Act of 2007, H.R. 3355. This bill is designed to address the growing crisis in the availability and affordability of homeowners’ insurance.  The legislation focuses on stabilizing the catastrophe insurance market by expanding private industry’s capacity to cover natural disasters and helping states to better manage risk.

On October 10, 2007, the House passed the National Affordable Housing Trust Fund Act, H.R. 2895, to establish a national affordable housing trust fund to build or preserve 1.5 million homes or apartments over the next ten years, without increasing the federal deficit.  Increasing the supply of affordable housing will help ensure that families who have lost their homes due to predatory lending or a family financial crisis, such as ill health or job loss, can find housing.

On September 18, 2007, the House passed the Expanding Homeownership Act of 2007. This bill will revitalize the Federal Housing Administration (FHA), which was established to provide a reliable source of affordable mortgage loans for first-time homebuyers.  The bill will enable the FHA to serve more subprime borrowers at affordable rates and terms, to attract borrowers that have turned to predatory loans in recent years, and to offer refinancing to homeowners struggling to meet their mortgage payments in the midst of the current turbulent mortgage markets.

On September 6, 2007, the House passed the Native American Housing Assistance and Self Determination Reauthorization Act of 2007. This legislation reauthorizes the Native American Housing Assistance Self Determination Act of 1996 for five years and amends the law to address housing needs of Native Americans. The bill clarifies rules and regulations and makes it easier for tribes to attain affordable housing.

On July 12, 2007, the House passed the Section 8 Voucher Reform Act of 2007.  The legislation will change Housing and Urban Development's (HUD) Section 8 public housing programs - expanding rental assistance opportunities, improving program efficiency, and encouraging family self-sufficiency. The bill expands the number of families receiving vouchers by 20,000 a year for each of the next five years and ensures the program works effectively for the nation’s low income working families with children, elderly and disabled.

On May 22, 2007, the House passed legislation to establish an Affordable Housing Fund that will dedicate hundreds of millions of dollars to the construction, maintenance and preservation of affordable housing nationwide over the next five years. This is a non-taxpayer financed fund of about $500 million a year, financed by required contributions from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. In the first year of the fund, grants would go to Katrina-stricken areas of Louisiana and Mississippi.  In the following four years, grants would be allocated by formula to states, with 100% of the funds to be used for the benefit of very low-income families.

Because some of the hardest hit by the lack of affordable housing are residents of the Gulf Coast displaced by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, in March of 2007 the House passed the Gulf Coast Housing Recovery Act. House Democrats are delivering on our promise to bring a new direction to the Gulf Coast region and help these families recover from the largest natural disaster in our nation’s history.  The Gulf Coast Housing Recovery Act is a crucial first step.  The bill will speed up the repair and rebuilding of homes and affordable rental housing in affected areas, ensure continued rental assistance for displaced families and those who have moved back home, and provide reimbursements to communities and landlords that generously assisted evacuees.