Senator Hassan in the Union Leader: Slashing regulations will lower housing costs for Granite Staters

MANCHESTER – In a new op-ed published in the Union Leader , U.S. Senator Maggie Hassan highlights how the bipartisan 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act will lower housing costs by slashing outdated red tape, building more middle-class homes, and banning Wall Street hedge funds and private equity firms from buying up single-family homes. The 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act , which Senator Hassan cosponsored and helped pass , became law last month without President Trump’s signature. To read Senator Hassan’s op-ed in the Union Leader, click here or see below. No matter where I go in our state, Granite Staters of all ages, walks of life, and political stripes have the same problem: It costs too much to live in New Hampshire. Rents and mortgages are eating up more of every paycheck. Young people are moving away, and businesses are struggling to find the workers that they need to grow. Our state can’t reach its full potential if people can’t afford to live here. The good news is that we’re finally starting to make progress. Congress recently passed into law the landmark, bipartisan 21st Century Road to Housing Act. At the center of this law is the belief that the American Dream should be affordable for everyone. This legislation will help make it possible to build more homes and apartments by slashing red tape and outdated regulations that slow down construction. It also curbs corporate price gouging by prohibiting large private equity companies from buying up homes, inflating prices for everyone. Young families should not be priced out of the housing market because they can’t compete with the deep pockets of Wall Street when bidding on a house. We need a housing policy that puts American families first — that makes the American dream accessible to everyone who works hard. In addition to going after the bad actors in the housing market, this bill also tackles the systemic problems that have kept housing costs stubbornly high. Right now, America has a shortage of an estimated 4.7 million homes. Government regulations and red tape have helped make the home-building process too long and too expensive, which left too many construction projects stalled out in a never-ending cycle of government reviews and fights over permitting. This not only has limited the housing supply and driven up costs, but it also runs counter to who we are as Americans. America has always been a nation of builders who, with creativity and determination, carved a country out of a continent. But now, in the country that built the Empire State Building in 13 months, it often takes years to put a shovel in the ground to build a new home. The Road to Housing Act takes a series of steps to help get our country back to building — and building quickly — by eliminating needless red tape. One such provision finally eliminates an outdated requirement that all manufactured housing include a steel chassis — which raises the cost of the home by up to $10,000 even though it adds no structural support. This law also includes reforms that will streamline government reviews required for constructing homes in rural areas, allow a simpler permitting process for smaller construction projects, and help make it easier for new housing to be built with pre-approved housing designs. All together, these reforms will make it easier to build homes for hard-working families more quickly and more efficiently. There are many more provisions in this law — and it includes the best ideas from both Democrats and Republicans alike. Our politics may be deeply divided right now, but the Road to Housing Act was a truly bipartisan endeavor and a reminder that, when we put our country ahead of partisan politics, we have the capacity to tackle big challenges. Unfortunately, even though the process of writing this law was bipartisan, President Trump refused to sign the legislation, meaning that it became law without his support. The President tried to use his refusal to sign the bill as leverage to force members of Congress to vote for the so-called SAVE Act, a bill based on the lie that the 2020 election was “stolen” from him. So, while Americans are feeling the pain of high costs — in no small part due to the President’s tariffs, war with Iran and cuts to health care, an agenda that is making everything more expensive — the President tried to block critical bipartisan legislation aimed at reducing the cost of housing. All for the sake of his partisan agenda and obsession over an election he lost 6 years ago. Even with the headwinds posed by a recalcitrant and petulant President, there’s more that we can — and must — do to make homes and apartments more affordable in New Hampshire. We need to expand the low-income housing tax credit to help more families find a place to call home, crack down on corporations that buy up manufactured housing communities just to jack up prices, invest in workforce housing developments, and much more. This doesn’t have to be a partisan issue. The American Dream doesn’t belong to just Republicans or Democrats, it’s what we all want as Americans. Now is the time for both parties to keep up the momentum and do whatever we can to fight high housing costs and make the American dream something everyone can afford. ###