Housing costs

Heirs Estate Inheritance Resolution and Succession Act of 2025 or the HEIRS Act of 2025

This bill requires the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to provide grants to assist individuals with the legal processes associated with inheriting certain real property.

Under the first program, HUD must provide grants to states that have enacted the Uniform Partition of Heirs Property Act (UPHPA) (or similar state law). The UPHPA provides due process protections against forced property sales for individuals who inherit real property from a landowner without a will. Historically, state property laws have provided that recipients of such property become tenants-in-common, which permits a single tenant to exercise their right to partition and sell the property.

A state or local government must use grant funds to assist residents with expenses related to establishing and documenting property ownership rights or settling a decedent's estate, including costs related to

• obtaining title reports, title abstracts, copies of public records, and land surveys;

• estate planning;

• heirs searches or tracing services; and

• recording and filing fees, notary fees, and legal fees and expenses.

Under the second program, HUD must provide grants to housing counseling agencies, legal services clinics at institutions of higher education, and qualified nonprofits. Such organizations must use grant funds to provide housing counseling, legal assistance, and financial assistance related to title clearing and home retention efforts for individuals who inherit property as tenants-in-common.

Supporting Veteran Families in Need Act

This bill permanently extends authorization for the Supportive Services for Veteran Families program of the Department of Veterans Affairs, which provides supportive services to very low-income veterans (and their families) occupying or transitioning to permanent housing.

Whole-Home Repairs Act of 2025

This bill establishes a pilot program through which the Department of Housing and Urban Development provides grants to state and local governments to support the ability of certain landlords and low- to moderate-income homeowners to make necessary modifications, repairs, or updates to their properties.

State and local governments must use the funds they receive under the program to award grants to homeowners and loans to landlords to make changes that address issues such as accessibility, habitability, and energy efficiency.

A homeowner is eligible for a grant if the homeowner's household income (1) does not exceed 80% of the area median income, (2) does not exceed 200% of the federal poverty guidelines, or (3) meets the income eligibility criteria of another federal program that serves families of limited means. A landlord is eligible for a loan (which may be forgivable) if the landlord owns fewer than 10 rental properties that have a total of up to 50 units and that mostly consist of units that are affordable (i.e., affordable to a tenant with an income that does not exceed 80% of the area median income).

The program terminates on October 1, 2030.

Choice in Affordable Housing Act of 2025

This bill establishes programs and grants to incentivize landlord participation in the Housing Choice Voucher program (i.e., Section 8 tenant-based housing assistance).

The bill authorizes the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to provide one-time incentive payments to landlords, security deposit payments, bonuses to public housing agencies that employ landlord liaisons, and amounts for other recruitment purposes.

The bill also reauthorizes through FY2029 the Tribal Housing and Urban Development-Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing program.

Additionally, the bill allows dwelling units to meet Housing Choice Voucher program inspection requirements by satisfactory inspection through participation in other housing programs.

Landlords not yet participating in a low-income housing assistance program may request inspection by a public housing agency to determine whether the dwelling meets requirements prior to selection by a tenant.

Finally, HUD must expand the use of an alternative method of calculating fair market rent for purposes of the Housing Choice Voucher program.

American Housing and Economic Mobility Act of 2025

This bill addresses housing affordability and availability through grants, housing programs, and oversight of financial institutions. The bill also makes certain changes to the estate tax, such as by generally increasing the rate.

The Department of Housing and Urban Development shall provide grants to (1) state, local, and tribal governments to remove barriers to building affordable units, (2) states to assist borrowers who have negative equity in their homes, (3) state housing finance agencies to support construction of affordable rental housing and prevent tenant displacement and harassment, and (4) eligible individuals (generally, lower income individuals who are first generation homebuyers) to help them purchase their first homes.

The bill establishes and provides funding for the first-time homeowner grant program and the affordable rental housing construction program, and it also funds existing rural housing programs.

The bill also requires financial regulators to generally assess the effectiveness of financial institutions in meeting the credit and lending needs of their communities, particularly of underserved populations.

The bill also expands fair housing protections to prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, source of income, veteran status, or an individual's perceived membership in a protected class (e.g., an individual's perceived race or sex).

Additionally, the bill modifies the estate tax in various ways, including by reducing the number of brackets to three, increasing the tax rates, and reducing the basic exemption amount. The bill also places additional taxes on high-income estates and trusts.

Cleaner Air Spaces Act of 2025

This bill requires the Environmental Protection Agency to provide grants to air pollution control agencies, including at least one tribal agency with jurisdiction over air quality, to implement cleaner air space programs (i.e., programs to provide clean air to the public during wildland fire smoke events). Generally, such programs must be located in areas at risk of exposure to wildland fire smoke and must help provide educational materials, clean air centers (i.e., one or more clean air rooms in a publicly accessible building), and air filtration units to certain households. Clean air rooms are rooms designed to keep levels of harmful air pollutants as low as possible during wildland fire smoke events.

Under the bill, air pollution control agencies must partner with at least one community-based organization in implementing such programs.

Build Housing with Care Act of 2025

This bill establishes a competitive grant program to support co-located childcare and housing facilities. It also requires the Government Accountability Office to study the availability and affordability of childcare for residents of public housing.

Specifically, the Department of Housing and Urban Development must award the grants to eligible entities, which include community development financial institutions, public housing authorities, licensed childcare providers, government entities, housing developers, and consortia of such entities. Entities must use the grants for designing, planning, constructing, acquiring, renovating, or otherwise supporting new or existing housing facilities with childcare providers on the same premises or nearby.

Tribal Trust Land Homeownership Act of 2025

This bill sets forth requirements for the processing of a proposed residential leasehold mortgage, business leasehold mortgage, land mortgage, or right-of-way document by the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA). The BIA must notify lenders upon receipt of such documentation, perform a preliminary review of such documents not later than 10 days after receipt, and approve or disapprove of such documents within 20 or 30 days, depending on the type of application.

Additionally, the bill sets forth requirements for the BIA regarding (1) response times for the completion of certified title status reports, (2) notification of delays in processing, and (3) the form of notices and delivery of certain reports.

The bill also provides relevant federal agencies and Indian tribes with read-only access to the Trust Asset and Accounting Management System maintained by the BIA.

The Government Accountability Office must report on digitizing documents for the purpose of streamlining and expediting the completion of mortgage packages for residential mortgages on Indian land.

Finally, the bill establishes within the BIA's Division of Real Estate Services the position of Realty Ombudsman.