[Congressional Record Volume 171, Number 45 (Tuesday, March 11, 2025)]
[Senate]
[Page S1666]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mr. REED: (for himself and Ms. Lummis):
  S. 964. 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. Mr. President, today I am introducing the Property 
Improvement and Manufactured Housing Loan Modernization Act with 
Senator Lummis. Our bipartisan bill would help more families purchase 
an affordable home and maintain our housing supply by strengthening the 
Federal Housing Administration, FHA, Title I Loan Program.
  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 enabled families to access stable, 
affordable housing, while also helping maintain our Nation's housing 
stock. 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 into disrepair and out of our housing supply.
  These loans should be an important tool in helping to close our 
nationwide housing shortage, which the Brookings Institution estimates 
at nearly 5 million homes. However, outdated loan limits and statutory 
restrictions have turned title I from an effective program into 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 
three 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 or 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 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 accessible dwelling units, ADUs, which 
are small housing units added to a single-family property, eligible for 
title I financing. This small addition to title I will make the 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 cosponsor this bill and support 
its passage.
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