A sweeping new federal housing law has taken effect, marking what supporters describe as Congress’s most significant push in decades to address the nation’s housing shortage — a shortage that hits especially hard for Inland Empire and Southern California residents already struggling with sky-high home prices.
The legislation became law over the weekend despite President Donald Trump declining to sign it. Trump withheld his signature not because he opposed the bill, but as a protest over the Senate’s failure to advance a separate, unrelated voter ID measure he had championed. Because he did not formally veto the housing package, it took effect automatically, without the fanfare that typically accompanies a presidential signing ceremony.
The timing is notable for congressional Republicans, who might otherwise have used the bill as a showcase achievement heading into a midterm election cycle in which affordability concerns are weighing heavily on voters. Instead, the law’s arrival came and went with little public celebration.
Housing advocates are calling the measure a rare and consequential moment for federal policy.
“I think the last time Congress passed anything of this magnitude, many of you were not even alive,” said Stephen Russell, president of the San Diego Housing Federation. “It is almost a once-in-a-lifetime event.”
The scale of the problem the law aims to address is stark. Most housing analysts estimate the country needs millions of additional units to bring costs down to a reasonable level, and California’s urban centers — including fast-growing pockets of the Inland Empire — carry an outsized share of that need. Nationally, the median home price hit a record $440,600 in June, according to the National Association of Realtors. In California, that figure would barely buy a starter home; the statewide median reached its own record of $930,260 just a month earlier.
The new law bundles together a range of tools rather than a single sweeping mandate. Among the provisions likely to matter most for California communities:
A system of federal grants that rewards cities for approving and building more housing, while withholding funding from those that lag behind — a carrot-and-stick approach aimed at breaking through local resistance to new development.
Regulatory changes designed to lower costs for manufactured and factory-built homes, an option increasingly seen as a faster, cheaper alternative to traditional construction, particularly for lower-income buyers.
A new program intended to speed up long-term recovery efforts following natural disasters such as wildfires — a provision with clear relevance for fire-prone regions across California, including areas of the Inland Empire that have faced their own blazes in recent years.
Whether the law delivers the kind of large-scale relief its backers are promising remains to be seen. But for a state where the gap between wages and housing costs continues to widen, even incremental federal action is being welcomed by local housing officials who have long argued that state and local efforts alone cannot solve the crisis.
Original source: CalMatters
