How state and local governments can leverage a landmark housing law

The 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act, signed into law on July 11, 2026, is one of the most significant federal housing packages in decades. While the law will take years to fully reshape housing policy nationally, several parts of it create immediate opportunities for state and local governments to strengthen how they plan, invest, and compete for resources.  

State, county, and municipal leaders should focus specifically on the following three provisions, which can collectively help address some of the most pressing challenges communities face at the state and local level, such as affordability, housing shortages, deteriorating buildings, vacancies, and blight. 

The vacant land database requirement 

Communities trying to overcome persistent housing challenges often run up against a stubborn problem: You can’t solve what you can’t see. Many state and local agencies simply lack the data needed to understand their core challenges’ root causes, geographic concentration, and severity.  

A key provision of the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act offers a path forward. The law requires all recipients of a Community Development Block Grant (CDBG)—one of the primary levers used by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to expand affordable housing—to maintain “a searchable database that identifies all parcels of undeveloped land owned by the grantee.” Though some CDBG grantees may already have some form of this, those who don’t may view creating a new database as an unwelcome compliance exercise. They shouldn’t.  

Taking inventory of publicly owned land gives governments a powerful tool for advancing housing and economic development goals. Understanding what land is available allows communities to align public assets with local priorities and attract private investment that supports those priorities. 

In fact, CDBG grantees should consider the law’s database requirement just a starting point for creating a broader local housing inventory strategy. For example, if a community wants to focus on vacant land only, it could add privately owned vacant parcels. More thorough vacant parcel data can help teams identify sites for new housing developments or determine infill needs to protect areas from further disinvestment and loss.  

But why stop there? Governments can add vacant buildings and blighted properties to the database as well by pulling supporting data from their own public records, such as building permits, tax delinquencies, and utility shutoffs. The ability to map and visualize this aggregated data helps states, counties, and municipalities gain a clearer understanding of what’s truly going on within a community. For example, leaders can see where there's creeping decline or increased development interest, which properties are suitable for rehabilitation, and where opportunities exist for redevelopment. The overall result is a more comprehensive picture of neighborhood health, which in turn empowers leaders to make informed decisions and more effectively allocate limited resources. 

The home repair grant pilot program 

Though new development is important, communities must also protect the housing stock they already have. The 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act acknowledges this reality by incorporating the Whole-Home Repairs Act, a pilot program sunsetting in 2031 that funds home repair grants to low-income homeowners and loans to qualifying landlords. Whereas existing programs typically address specific home improvement needs separately, this new program covers accessibility modifications, repairs, and a variety of other updates comprehensively. That broad applicability is important because housing upgrades rarely fit neatly into one category. A household may need safety repairs, accessibility improvements, and energy-related upgrades at the same time. By extending grant eligibility beyond owner-occupied housing, the provision also recognizes that preserving rental housing is an essential part of a community’s housing strategy. 

This matters, because the most affordable housing option for many families is remaining in the home they already occupy. Targeted repair investments can help residents age safely in place, lower household costs, prevent avoidable displacement, and extend the useful life of existing housing. In many cases, preserving a home is far less expensive than replacing it through new construction. 

As with vacant land planning, home repair investments are most effective when guided by good data. To take full advantage of the Whole-Home Repairs Act, communities should carefully track housing quality indicators such as code violations, exterior property condition surveys, and housing age. These indicators won’t capture every repair need, but they can help identify where deterioration is concentrated and where targeted investments may have the greatest stabilizing effect. Paired with neighborhood-level and income data, this approach can help communities deliver repair resources more strategically and equitably. 

The Opportunity Zone advantage 

The 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act also gives state and local leaders a reason to think more strategically about another federal housing program: Opportunity Zones. Permanently renewed in 2025 and now called “Opportunity Zones 2.0,” the initiative allows states to designate certain census tracts for federal tax incentives that can attract private capital to distressed communities. The ROAD to Housing Act lets HUD prioritize projects based in Opportunity Zones when issuing competitive grants.  

This boost from the new law means that state and local governments now have an even greater incentive to proactively identify development opportunities, assess housing conditions, and establish redevelopment priorities for Opportunity Zones. It also means that Opportunity Zones 2.0 should be viewed not just as a tax incentive designation but as a tool that can help align housing, community development, and capital investment strategies. 

The time to take action is now. As governors finalize Opportunity Zone 2.0 census tract nominations to meet the September 28, 2026, deadline, municipalities should work with state leaders to ensure that eligible tracts reflect priority areas for housing development, preservation, and neighborhood reinvestment. These decisions will shape where federal preferences and private investment may be directed for years to come. Communities that can clearly connect eligible census tracts to documented housing needs and ready-to-advance projects will have a stronger case when competing for future HUD resources. 

Capitalizing on interconnected provisions 

Acting on these three provisions strategically can produce synergistic benefits. A community that has built a strong land and housing database can use that information to identify which Opportunity Zone tracts contain vacant land, deteriorating housing, or redevelopment opportunities. Teams can then target those areas for repair programs, development pipelines, and future grant applications. In a competitive funding environment, that level of preparation can help translate a federal preference into a more credible, actionable housing strategy.  

More broadly, communities that move decisively to connect data, preservation, and strategic investment to a clear housing strategy will be better-positioned to compete for funding, attract investment, and maximize the impact of every public dollar.