Aaron Shroyer

The ROAD to Housing Act makes major changes to federal housing NEPA practice. I dug into the law --here's a summary of what's changed & why it matters: First, some context: HUD (and USDA) provide grants, loans, mortgage insurance, and rental assistance to support affordable housing. That federal hook often triggers time consuming NEPA review even for privately built projects. According to the latest CEQ data, HUD takes between half a year & *six years* to complete Environmental Impact Statements (EISs), with the median being about 2 years. (Most projects will require less involved review like an EA but neither CEQ nor HUD publishes data on these.) What does the ROAD to Housing Act change? - Section 501 creates *statutory NEPA exemptions* for certain HOME program funded projects including infill construction, property acquisition for affordable housing, rehabilitation, and new construction of <15 units. These projects would require *no NEPA review at all* (beyond establishing that they qualify). Statutory NEPA exemptions are not common; the most recent example is for CHIPS Act funded semiconductor fabs. - Section 206 directs HUD to update its regulations covering common activities like rental assistance, homebuyer assistance, & non-physical predevelopment work. Some of these activities -- like small rehab and repair projects are intended to be excluded from NEPA *and* related laws like the National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA). Others -- office-to-residential conversions, small new construction (5–15 units), and infill projects -- are to be excluded from NEPA but still go through NHPA and other reviews. Exact details depend on the forthcoming regulations. - Section 103 removes environmental study and reporting requirements for certain USDA-funded housing on qualifying infill sites. - Sections 202 and 205 allow state, local, and Tribal governments to assume more of HUD’s environmental-review responsibilities. - Section 504 allows disaster-recovery grantees to rely on another federal agency’s similar review. - Section 802 requires HUD and USDA to work to coordinate reviews for jointly funded projects. Taken together, these provisions exempt several important classes of HUD-sponsored housing development from NEPA, which can take years (and, if challenged in court, even longer). For a large, environmentally consequential development, full NEPA review is likely still required. But for rental assistance, rehabilitation of an existing building, or a small infill project in an existing urban core -- unless other federal permits are required or other federal agencies are providing funding -- the project may simply bypass NEPA and the associated delay, cost, and litigation risk. This is a major change to HUD’s NEPA practice, and will likely contribute, on the margin, to more efficient and timely provision of the housing assistance that the agency provides.