New Fahe Policy Brief: BABA Should Not Apply to HUD Housing Programs

America’s housing shortage has become a crisis for families, communities, and local economies. Across the country, policymakers are looking for ways to increase housing supply and reduce the costs of building, including by loosening burdensome regulations.

A new policy brief from Fahe examines how the application of Build America, Buy America requirements to U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development housing programs is creating serious unintended consequences.

“Fahe works with communities where housing challenges are already difficult to solve. When well-intended policies are applied in ways that add cost and create unnecessary delays the people most affected are the families and communities waiting for homes. This brief offers a clear path for HUD to correct the issue and keep housing development moving,” said Kylie Milliken, Federal Advocacy Coordinator, Fahe.

Build America, Buy America was designed to strengthen domestic manufacturing by requiring materials used in federally assisted infrastructure projects to be made in the United States. That goal is important, but applying these requirements to housing programs creates a different result: delayed projects, higher compliance costs, and added administrative burdens for nonprofit housing developers.

Housing construction uses thousands of components, each of which requires documentation and verification under BABA. For mission-driven developers already working in communities with urgent housing needs, this creates a compliance burden that can slow or stop projects without meaningfully advancing domestic manufacturing goals.

Fahe’s new policy brief outlines the challenge and offers clear recommendations HUD can act on now. The brief explains why HUD should bring its guidance into alignment with BABA’s authorizing statute and remove housing programs from requirements Congress did not intend to apply.

At a time when communities need more homes, policy should help housing development move forward instead of making construction more difficult.