New Mexico U.S. Rep. Melanie Stansbury (D-N.M) visited a transitional living facility in Albuquerque on Wednesday to tout her office’s housing-related earmarks and also a “landmark” federal housing bill that quietly went into law last month that she said will have major impacts on the state’s housing shortage.
The 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act passed both chambers of Congress with wide, bipartisan majorities and became law July 11 despite never receivingPresident Donald Trump’s signature. Stansbury explained that Trump refused to sign the bill, so Republican House of Representatives members added an “unusual” provision enabling the bill to become law without Trump’s signoff.
“It just sort of quietly slipped through,” Stansbury said during a news conference at the Saranam facility on Albuquerque’s West Side. “And it’s kind of extraordinary when you think about how significant this legislation was.”
The bill caps the number of single-family homes private equity institutions can purchase and cuts regulations seen as barriers to affordable housing construction. It also has provisions aimed at keeping mortgages low for veterans and expands U.S. Housing and Urban Development agency grants for tribal nations, among other provisions Stansbury highlighted.
Housing New Mexico’s Director of Community Development Kellie Tillerson said during the news conference that the state’s housing finance agency is “really excited” about the new law’s changes related to manufactured housing. One provision removes federal definitions of manufactured homes that allowed local governments to zone mobile homes differently than others.
Tillerson also said the bill will make home rehabilitation programs easier to implement.
“We have several partners throughout the state that assist with that, but the red tape is so thick,” she said. “I think that we’ll be able to rehabilitate a lot of existing housing once those regulations are defined and the guidance comes out.”
In addition to the bipartisan bill, Stansbury also touted $7.6 million in housing-related projects she funded through the Community Project Funding program, which allows individual members of Congress to direct funding to specific projects.
She said she prioritized housing projects to local governments and nonprofit entities, including those focused on seniors, families with children and veterans, due to the severity of the state’s housing challenges and increasing homelessness..
A recent point-in-time count coordinated by the New Mexico Coalition to End Homelessness determined that 5,285 people were unhoused in New Mexico in January 2026, an increase of more than 500 people during the previous January.
“We know that because of the increase in cost of real estate and rent, families just cannot find affordable housing anymore,” Stansbury said. “And that is becoming more and more dire every day, every week, every month.”
