Prioritization of Freedom to Build designated localities in competitive grants

(a) Findings Congress finds the following: (1) Local regulatory barriers, including restrictive zoning, burdensome permitting processes, and cost-increasing mandates, are a significant contributor to housing-supply constraints and rising housing costs across the United States. (2) Federal investments in infrastructure, transportation, and community development generate greater public benefit when the surrounding regulatory environment permits the construction of housing in response to improved accessibility and economic opportunity. (3) Communities that remove regulatory barriers to homebuilding serve national economic, workforce development, and housing affordability objectives. (4) Federal tax incentives for housing production and investment, including the low-income housing tax credit under section 42 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, qualified opportunity zone incentives under section 1400Z–2 of such Code, and the new markets tax credit under section 45D of such Code, generate greater returns for taxpayers and produce more housing when deployed in communities with pro-building regulatory environments. (5) Federal housing, transportation, and community development funds achieve greater impact when directed to communities where the regulatory environment enables those investments to produce their intended results. Directing such funds to communities that simultaneously maintain regulatory barriers to the construction those programs are designed to support diminishes the effectiveness and return on the Federal investment. (6) An adequate and growing supply of housing allows demand growth from rising incomes and declining interest rates to result in expanded homeownership rather than higher home prices, property taxes, and homeowner insurance premiums, thereby protecting the affordability and value of homeownership for current and prospective homeowners. (7) The Freedom to Build designation established under section 2 provides a reliable and verifiable indicator that a community has committed to a regulatory environment supportive of housing supply growth. (b) Priority for freedom To build communities The Secretary of Housing and Urban Development shall prioritize applicants that are located in or primarily serve communities with a current Freedom to Build designation under section 2 for any competitive grant administered by the Department of Housing and Urban Development that relates to housing development, community development, or any other competitive grant relating to the construction, modification, rehabilitation, or preservation of housing. (c) Sense of congress It is the sense of Congress that Federal agencies administering competitive grant programs for infrastructure, transportation, and community development, including the Department of Transportation, the Environmental Protection Agency, and the Department of Agriculture, should consider whether an applicant is located in a locality with a current Freedom to Build designation under section 2 as a positive factor in evaluating applications for such grants where housing supply or community development is relevant to the objectives of the program.