A Secret Housing Grab You’re Not Supposed to Notice to Override Your Local Zoning Laws!

The US Fed­er­al Reserve is expect­ed to keep inter­est rates steady, with investors on edge for the lat­est deci­sion. The House Over­sight Com­mit­tee rejects Ghis­laine Maxwell’s plea for immu­ni­ty in exchange for explo­sive tes­ti­mo­ny. Tsuna­mi waves strike US shores after a major Pacif­ic quake, spark­ing chaos in Hawaii. Amid these dis­trac­tions, a bipar­ti­san Sen­ate hous­ing bill, the Renew­ing Oppor­tu­ni­ty in the Amer­i­can Dream to Hous­ing Act of 2025, push­es fed­er­al con­trol over local zon­ing and land use. Backed by Tim Scott and Eliz­a­beth War­ren, it includes a $1B “inno­va­tion fund” and HUD guide­lines to over­ride com­mu­ni­ty zon­ing laws, pri­or­i­tiz­ing work­force hous­ing and Sec­tion 8 projects. This is a fed­er­al pow­er grab, using grants to con­trol local com­mu­ni­ties while ignor­ing local needs. Crit­ics warn it could bypass com­mu­ni­ty zon­ing laws, pri­or­i­tize non-res­i­dents, and bur­den local gov­ern­ments with strings-attached grants, and threat­en local con­trol over devel­op­ment.

• The US Fed expect­ed to hold inter­est rates steady. Investors await the Fed inter­est rate deci­sion. 
• The House over­sight com­mit­tee rejects Ghis­laine Maxwell’s req­ui­si­tion for immu­ni­ty in exchange for her tes­ti­mo­ny. 
• Tsuna­mi waves hit US shores after major pacif­ic quake. Surf is up in Hawaii. 
• They want you to focus on all these dis­trac­tions. 
• Afford­able hous­ing, they don’t want you to talk about Sec­tion 8 any­more. Any­time the gov­ern­ment puts mon­ey into some­thing they con­trol it. You can’t put fed­er­al mon­ey into a project and guar­an­tee your com­mu­ni­ty that it will for your com­mu­ni­ty. Sec­tion 8 hous­ing will be full with peo­ple that don’t even live in the com­mu­ni­ty. 
• Sen­ate Bank­ing advances first largest, bipar­ti­san hous­ing pack­age in a decade. The com­mit­tee unan­i­mous­ly advanced land­mark hous­ing leg­is­la­tion on Tues­day mark­ing a rare area of over­whelm­ing bipar­ti­san­ship in a divid­ed Con­gress. This is a fed­er­al gov­ern­ment grab and it will not stop. All you hear is that we have such a hous­ing short­age and we need afford­able hous­ing and work­force hous­ing. These grants are going into your com­mu­ni­ty, this is not pri­vate grants. They have set you up for work­force hous­ing. The renew­ing Oppor­tu­ni­ty in the Amer­i­can Dream to Hous­ing Act of 2025, spon­sored by Tim Scott and rank­ing mem­ber Eliz­a­beth War­ren… They will have the right to super­sede your zon­ing laws and rules. If they want to put a fed­er­al hous­ing project right in your back­yard they will.  They cut the red tape around zon­ing and build­ing stan­dards and the need for dereg­u­la­tion. Do you remem­ber when Kamala cam­paigned that she was going to build 3 mil­lion hous­es. One pro­vi­sion would direct HUD to come up with new guide­lines around zon­ing and land-use poli­cies to encour­age more con­struc­tions. The gov­ern­ment will say that they will with­hold if you don’t do this and this. Anoth­er would stand-up a pilot pro­gram where HUD offers grants and loans to low and mod­er­ate income home­own­ers and cer­tain land­lords. It autho­rizes $1B over five years for an “inno­va­tion fund” for local com­mu­ni­ties (may­or and com­mis­sion­ers) would get mon­ey if they come up with new ways to build more hous­ing. Most cities and coun­ties have a full time grant writer on staff. The inno­va­tion fund was part of the YIMBY (Yes In My Back Yard) move­ment which used funds from the Amer­i­can res­cue plan to change zon­ing laws. They are get­ting ready to take over the zon­ing in your com­mu­ni­ties. There is not a group of com­mis­sion­ers and city coun­sel mem­bers that doesn’t love a good gov­ern­ment grant with strings attached that mean mon­ey. Most com­mu­ni­ties have a full time grant writer just for these grants.