Democrats Aim To Push Housing Policy Agenda—With Affordability ‘Front and Center’ in 2026

President Donald Trump has put housing affordability at the forefront of his administration's agenda—and now, Democrats are aiming to do the same, hinting at new legislative pitches that could be put on the table in 2026.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer on Thursday in Washington, DC, laid out how zoning reform, construction financing, homeowners insurance, and "supercharging" construction are priorities for Democrats as they take aim at affordability issues.

He also floated several policy proposals including "help" with down payment assistance, lowering the cost of mortgage insurance, expanding access to portable and assumable mortgages, and reforms to homeowners insurance.

Schumer said Democrats are working on several legislative ideas, including expanding the housing trust fund to invest in public housing, and creating a Fannie and Freddie-led national secondary market for construction loans to finance multifamily housing.

He further suggested he and Sen. Tammy Duckworth of Illinois were working on a bill to invoke the Defense Production Act to purchase housing materials in short supply and scaling supply of modular and manufactured housing through the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Democrats would put affordability issues "front and center" in 2026, Schumer said, adding that they would unveil plans to combat rising costs in groceries, energy, child care, and health care in coming weeks. But housing issues are at the forefront, given the rise in both home prices and rents so far this decade.

Schumer also suggested laws cracking down on junk fees and on predatory companies abusing tenants and using price-fixing algorithms. In the short term, Schumer called for expanding Section 8 vouchers and other kinds of rental relief.

Dueling plans

The discussion came on the heels of Trump announcing several policies to lower housing costs and address affordability, including moving to prevent large institutional investors from buying single-family homes, and instructing Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to buy $200 billion of mortgage-backed securities.

Congressional Republicans have introduced several proposals aimed at reducing regulation and rolling back federal guidelines and regulatory authority they said have created uncertainty in the home construction market and slowed down building.

While housing and affordability are largely bipartisan issues on Capitol Hill, Democrats and Republicans have criticized one another's plans. Congressional Republicans have blamed Biden-era rules around environmentalism for slowing home construction. Schumer has in turn called Trump's 50-year mortgage concept "unserious," and has blamed tariffs and immigration policy for driving up costs.

A bipartisan housing reform bill, the ROAD to Housing Act, passed in the Senate last year but was halted in the House when it was stripped from the National Defense Authorization Act.

Supply side

Schumer, along with other Democratic legislators, spoke at an event Thursday for the Center for American Progress, a left-leaning think tank that last year released a report calling for drastic measures to increase housing production.

A "nationwide mission to build housing to reduce costs" is necessary, Schumer said, suggesting local zoning reform required both incentives for local governments to reform rules to increase housing production and rules to punish those that don't.

Schumer also called for a new institution researching innovation to bring new housing costs down, similar to how the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency puts forth new ideas in the defense industry.

Democratic Sen. Brian Schatz of Hawaii said at the event that the regulations are only part of the discussion, blaming both government impediments to building and an attitude of local resistance to new housing that requires a change in "the politics of housing policy."

"One of the things we need to be ready to do is to actually deliver, not on the things that sound popular, but things that will alleviate the shortage of housing," Schatz said.

"Sometimes they're the same thing, but sometimes they're not."