The 12 Titles of the ROAD Act

The Act is organized into twelve titles. Each page below explains every section in plain English — what changes, who it affects, and when.

Title I · 7 sections 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. Title II · 13 sections Building More in America This title is the housing-supply engine of the act. It creates several new HUD grant programs to spur home construction and repair — including a whole-home repairs pilot, an Innovation Fund that rewards communities that cut red tape and build more housing, and a pilot to convert vacant malls, hotels, and warehouses into housing. It also streamlines federal environmental reviews for routine housing projects, lets Community Development Block Grant money pay for new affordable-housing construction for the first time (up to 20 percent of an allocation), roughly quadruples FHA multifamily loan limits, and makes the Rental Assistance Demonstration program permanent. Title III · 4 sections Manufactured Housing for America This title aims to expand the supply of factory-built housing. It lets manufactured homes be built without the traditional permanent steel chassis, pushes states to treat chassis-less homes the same as conventional manufactured homes, modernizes FHA loan limits for manufactured home purchases and home improvements, and creates a new competitive grant program to preserve and improve manufactured housing communities. Title IV · 5 sections Accessing the American Dream This title targets barriers that keep lower-cost homes and rental assistance from working well. It orders federal studies of why so few mortgages under $100,000 get made, overhauls who can perform FHA appraisals and creates a national pathway for appraiser trainees, launches a HUD pilot that lets rent-assisted families bank rent increases from higher earnings into savings accounts, and cuts red tape in the Section 8 voucher program by accepting recent inspections from other housing programs and letting landlords get units pre-approved. Title V · 5 sections Program Reform This title overhauls five major federal housing programs. It reauthorizes and loosens the rules of the HOME affordable-housing block grant, modernizes USDA rural housing loans and rental assistance, lets communities seek waivers of homelessness-grant spending caps, permanently establishes a standing disaster-recovery block grant program at HUD with its own Treasury fund, and expands the Moving to Work demonstration to up to 25 more public housing agencies. Title VI · 3 sections Veterans and Housing This title aims to make sure veterans learn about and can use the housing benefits they have earned. It requires the standard mortgage application form to flag possible VA home loan eligibility, stops certain VA disability benefits from counting against veterans when they apply for supportive housing assistance, and requires FHA loan disclosures to include a cost comparison with VA loans. Title VII · 4 sections Oversight and Accountability This title strengthens congressional oversight of federal housing agencies. It requires the HUD Secretary to testify before Congress every year, adds new FHA financial reporting requirements, tightens reporting by the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness, and addresses home appraisals by requiring agencies to give consumers a way to challenge appraisals and by commissioning a study on creating a public appraisal database. Title VIII · 5 sections Accountability, Coordination, Studies, and Reporting This title focuses on making federal housing agencies work together better and studying problems before acting. It orders HUD, USDA, and the VA to coordinate and share data, requires a series of GAO and HUD studies on topics like workforce housing, heirs' property, and work requirements, and imposes new transparency rules on troubled public housing agencies that are under a receiver or federal monitor. Title IX · 9 sections Strengthening Community Banks' Role in Housing This title loosens several banking rules to help community banks and credit unions gather deposits, form, and grow, on the theory that stronger local banks mean more local mortgage and housing lending. It exempts certain custodial and reciprocal deposits from 'brokered deposit' restrictions, stretches exam cycles for more small banks, lets healthy credit union boards meet less often, and creates mentorship programs and streamlined application processes for people trying to start new banks. It also adds new transparency requirements when regulators invoke the 'systemic risk exception' to rescue a failed bank, and orders several studies on reciprocal deposits, new bank formation, and rural banking. Title X · 9 sections Home-Ownership for Main Street America Title X consists of a single section, 'Homes are for people, not corporations,' which bars large institutional investors -- for-profit entities with investment control over 350 or more single-family homes -- from buying additional single-family homes, subject to a detailed list of excepted purchase types. It backs the ban with civil penalties of up to $1,000,000 or three times the purchase price per violation, creates a HUD-run renter outreach hotline and website, and requires large investors to report their holdings annually. The prohibition takes effect 180 days after enactment and automatically sunsets 15 years after that effective date. Title XI · 1 section Central Bank Digital Currency A single-section title, unrelated to housing, that prohibits the Federal Reserve from issuing a central bank digital currency (CBDC). The prohibition is written into the Federal Reserve Act and lasts through December 31, 2030. Title XII · 2 sections Miscellaneous Standard closing provisions: a severability clause and a statement that the Act authorizes no new appropriations.