S1: Welcome in San Diego. I'm Andrew Bowen in for Jade Hindman. On today's show , Congress is entering the housing debate with a bipartisan package of reforms working its way through the House and Senate. How California may have blazed the trail. This is KPBS Midday Edition. Connecting our communities through conversation. The California legislature has been on a housing blitz , passing major housing policy reforms in recent years. Well , now Congress is finalizing a package of housing bills that includes some inspiration from California. Some experts say it would be the federal government's most significant housing reform in decades. So what does all this mean for housing affordability moving forward ? Joining me now is Aditi Moody. She's a housing reporter with KQED in San Francisco. And Aditi. Welcome.
S2: Thank you so much for having me.
S1: So we're talking about some pretty sweeping legislation here being debated in Washington.
S2: Uh , some , some experts are saying but I think the crux of the issue is that a lot of these reforms focus on just streamlining housing development and encouraging cities , counties , localities across the country to just plan for more housing. Um , some of the things that stood out to me as I was reporting on this big , big package of bills , um , was legislation that focuses on innovating construction methods. Um , there was also some work simplifying some of the complicated federal programs to encourage housing development. Um , and yeah , in general , we're just seeing more of a push to just build more housing.
S1: Well , housing and zoning , local You know , regulations have mostly been the domain of local governments , although state governments have been stepping into the debate as well.
S2: I think Governor Newsom has a famous quote about how it is kind of like determined at the local level. Housing is very much a part of that. Um , but I think that the federal government by , by announcing this package of bills and working really hard to get this thing through , I think it marks a , a shift , even at least tonally , in how people are thinking about the housing crisis nationally. Um , and I will say that , you know , there are a lot of federal programs that do , um , bolster local efforts to make sure that housing is built. Um , and it also signals kind of how , um , we as a country are thinking about where housing should be built. There are certain , um , I don't want to call it like , um , I guess maybe signaling is the is the right word to say. Uh , some of this legislation is tackling building housing near transit , um , you know , improving our construction methods so that they're faster and cheaper. These are all signals of , um , how we are all thinking about the housing crisis and how quickly we are trying to solve it.
S1:
S2: And a lot of the reforms that Congress is now considering are things that California has passed , you know , years ago. Um , because these these are issues that we've been facing for a very long time. Um , the things that stood out to me are , um , so in in California , we have the California Environmental Quality Act. It is um , basically what it's the law that governs how we do environmental reviews for a lot of different development projects. And nationally , there is another , um , environmental law that has like a kind of interesting acronym , Nepa. Um , and last year , Governor Newsom had passed a series of , of laws that basically streamlined Ceqa reform for various kinds of development , but specifically for infill housing. Now , Congress's package of bills also includes a provision to streamline , um , uh , Nepa reviews for federally funded infill housing projects. So it's kind of we see we see the , um , the similarities in , in the moves. Um , there's also a really interesting push towards , um , you know , building housing near transit in Congress's bill. The there's a provision that would reward projects for , you know , if it's built near public transit , those projects would be rewarded with easier access to federal funding. And that's significant because last year in California , we passed SB 79 , which allows for taller housing near public transit. So it's again interesting to see how these laws will kind of work in tandem with each other. Um , if it is passed by Congress.
S1: On this bill package also includes provisions to improve financing for modular housing. So for those who don't know , help us understand what is modular housing.
S2: Yeah , it's been kind of this like buzzword that has taken off in , I want to say , the past decade. Um , but it really refers to , uh , like prefab or , um , you know , manufactured housing , like , these are all kind of like words that essentially boil down to factory built housing , building housing in a big factory where the designs can be standardized. And what experts say is that building housing this way can basically , you know , build housing units a lot cheaper and faster. Um , and it's it's interesting to see that Congress is taking an interest in modular housing , um , because it is something that California lawmakers are also working on. Um , I had recently covered a story about , uh , Assemblymember Buffy Wicks , um , working on a package of , of legislation that I think she and a number of other , uh , lawmakers are getting ready to introduce , um , which tackles a factory built housing and trying to jumpstart that industry here in California. And , um , you know , it's not like this industry hasn't existed. It's been around for decades. But the arguments that , um , industry experts say for why it hasn't really taken off is partially because it is , number one , very risky. Um , you know , it's a new kind of construction , and it can be difficult to get financing for those kinds of projects. So , you know , locally , we might be seeing some bills that try to fix that financing and make it a little bit more sustainable. And it's interesting to see that that is being mirrored in Congress. Bill. Congress's bill focuses on , um , not just the financing , but just trying to make it a more sustainable type of construction so we can see more of it around the country.
S1:
S2: It is a bipartisan effort. Both Democrats and Republicans work together on this , um , both in the House and the Senate. They've been working on this package of bills since last year. Um , so so that alone is is really fascinating to me to just see how the housing crisis has , has really forced lawmakers to to work across the aisle here. Um , I will say , I think there has been some opposition with this new amendment that was added to the latest version of of the bill , which prohibits in in. It prohibits corporations and institutional investors from buying single family homes. And that's been pretty controversial. Yeah.
S1: Yeah. Tell me more about that. So large banks or corporations would not be allowed to purchase single family homes. This was a provision added or requested to be added by President Trump.
S2: I mean , even in California , we've had bills introduced , um , that that aimed to try to do the same thing. Um , President Trump earlier this year , I want to say in February had Requested that Congress include a provision that limits institutional and institutional investors from buying single family homes. And he had said , you know , I'm not going to sign this until I see it in the bill. And last week , it was included in in the bill after the Senate had had passed it. Um , but it is complicated. Uh , there are some housing experts that say , um , institutional investors play a relatively small role in the housing crisis. Um , and they also say that , you know , there is a role that institutional investors play when in the foreclosure crisis , they did buy up homes that were otherwise going to be abandoned. Um , and so right now we kind of see that debate playing out. Um , House leaders have , um , requested a conference with Senate leaders to kind of hammer out the differences and figure out where they can come to a compromise.
S1:
S2: It may mean that Congress package does not mean big , big changes for our state. Um , it's you know , I was speaking with some lawmakers who are involved in this bill , and they were they referred to it as like a modest set of reforms. Um , but but they did note that there are some provisions that are included in this package that could help California laws go a little bit further. Um , and one of the examples that I found was that , you know , back in 2023 , California had passed a law which required cities to create these pattern books , almost like pre-approved design books for ADUs , also known as um , granny flats or in-law units , just to make them , you know , get approved a lot faster if there's a pre pre-approved design book. Uh , you know , localities can choose from those designs and say , okay , this is what we want in our city. And then it's already approved. Well , Congress's package includes a , uh , a bill which would , um , it would encourage localities to create these design books , but for townhomes and duplexes , which is interesting because it kind of makes California's law if if it's if Congress's bill is passed , it could make that law go further. Um , by expanding what design books are out there and expanding the options for pre-approved designs. Mm.
S1: Mm.
S2: So we'll have to wait and see. Um , I have been told by , um , various aides within the Senate and House. Um , uh , like congressman's offices , that this could take a matter of days. It could take a matter of months. It kind of depends on how the conversations go.
S1: We'll have to wait and see. I've been speaking with Aditi Bundela Moody. She's a housing reporter with KQED in San Francisco. And Aditi , thank you for joining us.
S2: Thanks for having me.
S1: And that's our show for today. I'm your host Andrew Bowen in for Jade Hindman. Thanks for listening to Midday Edition. Have a great day.
The California legislature has been on a housing blitz, passing major housing policy reforms in recent years.
Now, Congress is finalizing a package of housing bills — some of the proposed changes were inspired by California.
Some experts say it would be the federal government's most significant housing reform in decades.
We talk about what the bill package could mean for housing affordability moving forward, in California and beyond.
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