NAHB supports infrastructure bill, opposes eviction plan
The National Association of Home Builders said it supports the $1 trillion bipartisan Senate infrastructure bill pending in Congress.
Additionally, the NAHB stated that it applauds lawmakers for omitting onerous regulatory proposals that would hurt housing affordability.
“NAHB commends Senate Democrats and Republicans for working together with the Biden administration to craft a bipartisan infrastructure package that will make much-needed improvements to the nation’s roads, bridges, broadband and public transportation network while rejecting costly regulatory proposals that would harm housing affordability,” said NAHB Chairman Chuck Fowke. “Thriving real estate markets depend on high-quality, accessible and efficient infrastructure, and this bill will better and more safely connect Americans to their homes, places of work and local communities.”
However, the home builder association is in opposition to a new eviction moratorium announced by the Center for Disease Control, which targets U.S. counties “experiencing substantial and high levels of community transmission levels” of COVID-19.
Rather, the NAHB is encouraging states and localities to disperse the billions of dollars in federal funds still available to provide relief to renters. The new order will expire on Oct. 3. The previous CDC eviction moratorium expired on July 31.
The association said that it is reviewing the order to determine if it applies to NAHB members who were exempt from the previous moratorium.
“As President Joe Biden said in his press conference today, the courts have made it clear that the eviction moratorium ‘was not constitutional – it would not stand,'” Fowke said. “Instead, state and local governments should be putting more effort into connecting renters with federal funds designed to help them make their payments. The federal government has provided billions of dollars for this purpose.”
Additionally, the NAHB has advocated for emergency rental assistance to help renters and landlords impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic and to protect the viability and stability of the rental housing market. The Treasury Department has disbursed more than $46 billion in rental assistance to state and local programs for relief to both landlords and tenants.
On the infrastructure front, the NAHB said the legislation could provide a boost for housing affordability.
By including Sen. Joe Manchin’s (D-W.Va.) Energy Infrastructure Act, the NAHB said that the legislation advances efforts to increase energy efficiency and reduce greenhouse gas emissions without stringent energy code mandates that will increase housing prices.
The measure restores an exemption for water and sewer contributions in aid of construction that will save some developers as much as 40% on water and sewer costs.
The bill also streamlines the federal permitting process, which will minimize uncertainty in the housing approval process and make the homes that are built more affordable.
One area of concern for the NAHB is the use of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac guarantee fees as a source of funding to pay for the cost of the legislation.
In a letter to senators in support of the bill, NAHB stated that “guarantee fees should only be used as a risk management tool for the Enterprises [Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac] to guard against potential mortgage credit losses and not to offset other government spending.”
As the Senate moves to advance the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, NAHB will continue to urge lawmakers to preserve the housing affordability provisions within the bill.
