HOME Reform Act of 2025

Key Points

• Expands who can qualify for HOME help by using a clearer income rule: up to the area’s median family income, adjusted for family size.
• Gives states and local governments more freedom to choose how they use HOME funds (like rehab, new builds, buying property), unless a specific limit is spelled out in law.
• Lets some smaller or rural places use HOME money for nearby infrastructure (water, sewer, roads, sidewalks, utility hookups) when it directly supports assisted housing.
• Makes it easier to count homes as “affordable” when renters use housing vouchers, and raises some homeownership limits while encouraging long-term affordability tools like community land trusts.
• Speeds up some projects by exempting certain small or infill housing activities from federal environmental review and by expanding exemptions from some labor and purchasing rules for smaller projects.