Padilla Praises Passage of 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act

Several Padilla Provisions Pass the Senate

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Today, U.S. Senator Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) joined his Senate colleagues in passing the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act, a bipartisan housing package that modernizes the housing system to expand homeownership opportunities and addresses the national affordable housing shortage. The updated version of the bill reflects a bipartisan agreement between the committee leaders in the Senate and House of Representatives, which will now consider the bill.

"Access to safe and affordable housing should not feel out of reach, but that is the stark reality millions of Americans face in Donald Trump's America," said Senator Padilla. "I am proud to see Congress advance my proposal to ensure veterans experiencing homelessness and receiving VA disability benefits can still qualify for housing assistance. I will continue pushing for commonsense solutions to help ensure our veterans have access to a safe place to sleep at night, while ensuring more Americans can achieve the American Dream of homeownership."

Padilla's bipartisan Housing Unhoused Disabled Veterans Act (HUDVA) was included as part of the legislation to ensure veterans experiencing homelessness and receiving disability payments maintain access to crucial housing support. The HUDVA provision would permanently exclude disability payments received by veterans from annual income for housing assistance eligibility purposes under the Department of Housing and Urban Development-Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing (HUD-VASH) Program. The legislation was co-led by Senators Dave McCormick (R-Pa.), Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.), and Katie Britt (R-Ala.).

The 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act also includes the Housing Supply Expansion Act of 2025, legislation Padilla cosponsored that would modernize the federal definition of "manufactured housing" to include modular or prefabricated homes built without a permanent chassis. By allowing off-chassis manufactured homes, the bill would expand consumer access to more efficient and cost-effective designs, providing greater architectural flexibility to better integrate into existing neighborhoods. Padilla is also a cosponsor of the Unleashing Needed Local Options to Construct and Keep (UNLOCK) Housing Act; a modified version of the bill was included in the housing package to allow municipalities, for the first time, to use Community Development Block Grant funding for the construction of new housing.

Padilla has been an active advocate for addressing homelessness and the housing crisis. Last year, Padilla led, with Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Representative Maxine Waters (D-Calif.-43), nearly 100 lawmakers in urging Congressional Appropriations leadership to include robust funding for the Emergency Housing Voucher (EHV) program as part of Fiscal Year 2026 funding legislation. Senator Padilla and Representative Cleaver (D-Mo.-05) also led more than 100 Democrats in the Senate and House in condemning staffing cuts and potential closure of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Field Offices across the country. Senator Padilla also helped secure a Governmental Accountability Office (GAO) investigation into the Trump Administration's drastic cuts to fair housing enforcement at HUD and the impacts of Elon Musk's "Department of Governmental Efficiency" (DOGE).

Padilla believes everyone deserves access to affordable and safe housing and recognizes the need to drastically increase the affordable housing stock to address the homelessness crisis facing California and the country, including through his Housing for All Act. This legislation would invest in proven solutions to address affordable housing shortages and provide a historic level of federal funding for existing programs to reduce homelessness and for innovative, locally developed solutions to support vulnerable populations experiencing homelessness.

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