Sen. Lisa Blunt Rochester debuts her new agenda and package of bills to make housing more affordable nationwide.
The New Way Home Agenda puts a framework in place through a package of bills to bring housing costs down and make more Americans homebuyers.
The U.S. is 5 million housing units short, according to Delaware State Housing Authority director Matthew Heckles. Delaware needs about 50 thousand housing units to address its housing crisis.
The first step is to improve zoning and land use law, according to Blunt Rochester.
“There were discriminatory practices that related to zoning, and that's one of the areas that this legislation is going to address,” Blunt Rochester said. “But it also addresses things like the history of things, like the GI Bill, which helps so many Americans, but not Black soldiers. And so to us, this is an opportunity to say, let's have a new way together.”
One of the bills is the Accelerating Home Building Act, which would create a U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development-administered grant program for local governments.
The funding would go toward developing pattern books, or pre-reviewed designs and construction plans that are approved by local authorities. That would streamline the construction process.
The plan includes five steps, and improving zoning law is just part of the first one – Breaking Ground: Expand the Housing Supply.
Step two goes into building strong communities. Blunt Rochester also discussed making housing more affordable for marginalized populations, including seniors. 58% of older renters are considered cost burdened in 2023, meaning they spend 30 to 50% of their income on housing, according to a Harvard study.
“We have seniors who are in homes that if they just had the right accommodations, a ramp, or if we built more accessible housing, they would be able to age in place gracefully,” Blunt Rochester said. “That's important.”
The third step aims to make housing attainable, and the fourth encourages creative housing and home ownership models. The Permanent Housing Affordability Act is a part of the bill package. It focuses on creating opportunities for shared equity housing, a housing strategy where ownership is shared between multiple parties. That can include one homeowner and a non-profit, several homeowners or several generations of a family.
It could also create opportunities for several non-profits or entities to own rental properties for locals, offering housing at affordable rates.
Median first-time homebuyers in 2024 were 38 years old compared to 29 in 1981, according to the National Association of Realtors.
“My kids are in their 30s,” Blunt Rochester said. “They can't afford to buy a house right now. My parents – who bought their house two miles from here – they were in their 30s when they bought that house… We want to say this dream should be within reach for young people.”
The final step is to change tax policy.
Blunt Rochester and several colleagues reintroduced the First-Time Homebuyer Tax Credit Act of 2025 to establish a refundable tax credit worth up to 10% of the cost of the home (up to $15 thousand) for first-time homebuyers.
Blunt Rochester said housing is an issue that touches everyone and these bills are a way to make up for the past at the federal level.
