In an unprecedented move to stimulate affordable housing construction nationally, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development has signed a Memorandum of Understanding, the impact of which will see a streamlining of environmental regulations and reviews.
In announcing the agreement with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Scott Turner said the Trump Administration was determined to get rid of “burdensome regulations that hinder home construction and increase costs.”
Turner, HUD Secretary, said the agreement with the Agriculture Department will hasten new affordable construction in rural areas where such development has been on the sluggish side compared to urban and suburban sections of the country.
The memorandum of understanding is a direct offshoot of the 21st Century Road to Housing Act legislation that was approved by Congress earlier this summer.
That legislation, notes the publication Smart Cities Dive, is not only the “largest federal housing legislation in decades,” but a lifeline to swaths of the country “struggling with affordable housing shortages and stagnant development.”
The agreement will also, according to a HUD press release, “evaluate the feasibility of a joint physical inspection process for housing products funded by amounts from the Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Department of Agriculture.”
The agreement has won the support of the National Association of Realtors, which described it as an important step toward “reforms that reduce costs and increase housing supply.”
The move has had its critics, however. In August, members of the House Sustainable Energy and Environment Coalition warned that any move to reduce housing energy regulations could prove problematic. Such codes, declared the members in a statement, have made “American households safer and more prosperous.”
October 6, 2026
By Garry Boulard
