[Congressional Record Volume 170, Number 43 (Monday, March 11, 2024)]
[Senate]
[Page S2348]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mr. REED (for himself and Ms. Lummis):
  S. 3905. A bill to amend title I of the National Housing Act to 
increase the loan limits and clarify that property improvement loans 
may be used for construction of accessory dwelling units; to the 
Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs.
  Mr. REED. Madam President, today I am introducing the Property 
Improvement and Manufactured Housing Loan Modernization Act with 
Senator Lummis. This legislation would strengthen the Federal Housing 
Administration, FHA, title I loan program to both help more families 
find and own an affordable home and better preserve our existing 
housing stock.
  Like its better known title II sister program, FHA title I expands 
access to housing and boosts affordability for families by insuring 
private market loans. However, title I is targeted towards two 
underserved portions of our housing market--manufactured homes and 
property improvement.
  For decades, title I has provided low-cost loans that help more 
families afford a manufactured home or make necessary improvements to 
their existing home, while expanding and preserving critical portions 
of housing supply. Indeed, manufactured homes are the largest source of 
unsubsidized affordable housing in the country, and property 
improvement loans help prevent more single-family homes and apartments 
from falling out of our housing stock.
  These loans should be a central tool helping to close our nationwide 
housing shortage, which Freddie Mac estimates at 3.8 million homes. 
However, outdated loan limits and statutory restrictions have weakened 
title I's effectiveness and turned the program from success to a missed 
opportunity.
  From the mid-1980s, through the early 1990s lenders offered 15,000 to 
25,000 title I manufactured home loans each year, but in 2021, only 3 
loans were issued. Similarly, lenders have gone from making more than 
70,000 title I property improvement loans annually in the 1990s to 
making fewer than 1,000 in 2022. That is a 99-percent drop in loan 
volume. In other words, as many as 99,000 fewer homes being bought, 
preserved, and included in our housing stock each year.
  The Property Improvement and Manufactured Housing Loan Modernization 
Act would refurbish title I and return it to our housing toolbox. It 
would expand loan limits and loan terms for all title I loans--making 
the program fit market demand and needs. Perhaps more importantly. the 
bill would finally allow FHA to index property improvement loans for 
inflation and expand the data it uses to set manufactured home loan 
limits, ensuring title I will remain a crucial tool as home costs rise 
in future years.
  Finally, our legislation makes accesible dwelling units, ADUs, which 
are small housing units added to a single-family property often for use 
by a family member, eligible for title I financing. In other words, our 
bill will make the revamped title I program an even more powerful home-
creation program than it was during its prior peak years and will 
particularly help families who want to provide a safe, comfortable 
place for aging parents or young adult children to live.
  Collectively, these improvements would help more families own a home, 
remain in homes they have spent decades in, and find an affordable 
place to live. I urge my colleagues to join Senator Lummis and myself, 
cosponsor this bill, and support its passage.

                          ____________________