Section 1 Short title
This Act may be cited as the “Faith in Housing Act of 2025”.
Faith in Housing Act of 2025
A BILL
To preempt State and local laws that prevent the construction of affordable housing on faith lands, and for other purposes.
Sec. 2 Findings
Congress finds the following:
An underproduction in housing units relative to demand has led to a housing shortage of millions of homes in the United States.
Lack of housing supply and rising rent costs exacerbate inequality and reduce opportunity for many people in the United States.
People in the United States who are unable to afford rising housing costs can fall into homelessness, causing both personal tragedy and challenges to public and charitable social services.
Houses of worship from every major faith tradition are involved in charitable activities to support low-income people in the United States facing housing insecurity.
The efforts of houses of worship to shelter homeless people in the United States, provide affordable or supportive housing, and serve the poor are obstructed by land use regulation that prohibits or curtails the ability of the house of worship to meet this mission.
The ability of houses of worship to serve their mission would be enhanced by allowing them the discretion to provide for the construction of affordable homes and homeless shelters.
The construction of housing is a form of interstate commerce that affects the economy and social welfare of the United States. State and local land use regulation has national and interstate effects on the housing shortage, level of housing insecurity and homelessness, and need for social services.
Sec. 3 Preemption of State and local laws preventing affordable housing construction on faith lands
Definitions— In this section:
Affordable housing— The term affordable housing means—
housing that complies with—
State or local building codes at the site of construction;
The International Residential Code or International Building Code of the International Code Council, as applicable to the type of structure; or
The Manufactured Home Construction and Safety Standards and other regulations applicable to manufactured homes adopted under the Manufactured Housing Construction and Safety Standards Act (42 U.S.C. 5401 et seq.);
housing that is deed-restricted to be affordable as rental units or for homeownership to residents at a range of percentages of area median income, provided that—
the average cost among all housing units is affordable to low-income families as determined under section 3(b)(2) of the United States Housing Act of 1937 (42 U.S.C. 1437a(b)(2)); and
all units are affordable at or below 140 percent of the area median income;
housing that will remain affordable, according to binding commitments, for 30 years from construction or substantial rehabilitation, without regard to the term of the mortgage or to transfer of ownership;
housing that may include preexisting or limited non-residential uses, including—
ground-floor facilities, such as childcare centers, operated by nonprofit community-based organizations for the provision of educational, recreational, or social services for use by the residents of the affordable housing and residents of the local community in which the housing is located; and
any preexisting religious institutional use, if such use is limited to the preexisting total square footage;
housing that may set aside not more than 5 percent of units for employees of the house of worship, or not more than one unit if the total number of units is at least five units, and shall otherwise comply with the Fair Housing Act (42 U.S.C. 3601 et seq.) without regard to 42 U.S.C. 3607; and
for affordable rental housing, housing that is managed by a nonprofit property manager with experience managing affordable housing, that has entered into an agreement for such purpose with the house of worship.
Faith land— The term faith land means real estate—
owned on or before January 1, 2023, by a house of worship; or
owned for a period of not less than 5 years by a house of worship.
House of worship— The term house of worship means a church or a convention or association of churches as described in section 170(b)(1)(A)(i) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 and exempt from tax under section 501(a) of such Code.
Site-specific hazard— The term site-specific hazard means a flood, landslide, wildfire, or similar severe disaster hazard, on the site of construction.
Protection of land use for affordable housing—
Authority to use faith land for affordable housing— The owner of faith land shall, upon notifying in writing any applicable State or local zoning authority of its election to invoke the terms of this Act, have sole discretion to construct or substantially rehabilitate affordable housing on such land, if such affordable housing—
is in or affects interstate or foreign commerce; or
is constructed using Federal assistance.
Relation to State law—
In general— Any law, regulation, or other requirement of a State or political subdivision of a State that is inconsistent with this section is preempted by the requirements under paragraph (1), but only to the extent of such inconsistency. Any provision of such law, regulation, or other requirement that is narrowly tailored to prevent site-specific hazards, and applies on equal terms to housing constructed under paragraph (1) and to all other residential construction in the jurisdiction, is not preempted.
Inspection— A State or political subdivision of a State shall have the right to reasonably inspect affordable housing described in paragraph (1) to confirm that the housing conforms to the requirements described in subsection (a)(1).
Cause of action— A person may assert a violation of this section as a claim or defense in a judicial proceeding and obtain injunctive or declaratory relief.
Attorneys’ fees— Section 722(b) of the Revised Statutes (42 U.S.C. 1988(b)) is amended—(1) by inserting “Faith in Housing Act of 2025”, after “Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act of 2000.”
Applicability— This Act shall not apply to the construction or substantial rehabilitation of affordable housing on faith land unless the owner submits written notice of its intention to invoke the terms of this Act in accordance with paragraph (b)(1) of this section.