S. 970Senate119th Congress (2025-2027)In Committee

Helping More Families Save Act

AI-Generated Summary

Updated November 24, 2025 at 2:01 AM UTC

The Helping More Families Save Act creates a pilot program that lets low‑income families in the Section 8 or Section 9 housing assistance programs save the extra rent they can afford when their earnings increase. By placing those extra payments into interest‑bearing escrow accounts, the program aims to help families build savings and become more financially independent. The pilot involves up to 25 housing entities serving up to 5,000 families, with rules for eligibility, withdrawals, and oversight.

Key Provisions

The Secretary will run a pilot that can select up to 25 public or private housing entities to manage interest‑bearing escrow accounts for up to 5,000 families that receive Section 8 or Section 9 housing assistance.
When a family’s earned income rises, the extra rent they can pay is deposited (plus interest) into the escrow account; families whose income is above 80% of area median income are excluded.
Families can withdraw the saved money (and interest) after they leave welfare assistance, after 5‑7 years in the program, earlier if they use it for an approved self‑sufficiency goal, or under other Secretary‑approved exemptions.
Any increase in earned income that is placed in the escrow account will not be counted as income or a resource for other benefit programs.
Eligible entities must apply, be spread across urban and rural areas, and notify families of the program, giving them at least two weeks to opt out before an account is opened.
Participation or non‑participation does not affect a family’s eligibility for Section 8 or Section 9 housing assistance.
The Secretary must select entities within 18 months of enactment, set up accounts within 6 months of selection, and keep them for at least 5 years (up to 7 years).
A study of the program’s impact must be completed within 8 years, and the pilot will end 10 years after enactment.
$5 million is authorized for FY 2026 to fund technical assistance and the program evaluation.

Legislative Activity

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1 earlier action

SenateIntro Referral Latest Action

Read twice and referred to the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs. (Sponsor introductory remarks on measure: CR S1666-1667)

Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee

March 11, 2025

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SenateIntro Referral

Introduced in Senate

March 11, 2025

SenateIntro Referral

Read twice and referred to the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs. (Sponsor introductory remarks on measure: CR S1666-1667)

Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee

March 11, 2025

Floor Debate

1 member

What members said about S. 970 on the floor

1 Democrat

Sen. Jack ReedD-RI · Mar 11, 2025

Mr. President, today I am introducing the Property Improvement and Manufactured Housing Loan Modernization Act with Senator Lummis. Our bipartisan bill would help more families purchase an affordable home and maintain our housing supply by strengthening the Federal Housing Administration, FHA, Title I Loan Program.

Like its better known title II sister program, FHA Title I expands access to housing and boosts affordability for families by insuring private market loans. However, title I is targeted towards two underserved portions of our housing market--manufactured homes and property improvement.

For decades, title I has enabled families to access stable, affordable housing, while also helping maintain our Nation's housing stock. Indeed, manufactured homes are the largest source of unsubsidized affordable housing in the country, and property improvement loans help prevent more single-family homes and apartments from falling into disrepair and out of our housing supply.

These loans should be an important tool in helping to close our nationwide housing shortage, which the Brookings Institution estimates at nearly 5 million homes. However, outdated loan limits and statutory restrictions have turned title I from an effective program into a missed opportunity.

From the mid-1980s through the early 1990s, lenders offered 15,000 to 25,000 title I manufactured home loans each year. But in 2021, only three loans were issued. Similarly, lenders have gone from making more than 70,000 title I property improvement loans annually in the 1990s to making fewer than 1,000 in 2022. That is a 99-percent drop in loan volume or in other words, as many as 99,000 fewer homes being bought, preserved, and included in our housing stock each year.

The Property Improvement and Manufactured Housing Loan Modernization Act would refurbish title I and return it to our housing toolbox. It would expand loan limits and terms for all title I loans--making the program fit market demand and needs. Perhaps more importantly, the bill would finally allow FHA to index property improvement loans for inflation and expand the data it uses to set manufactured home loan limits, ensuring title I will remain a crucial tool as home costs rise in future years.

Finally, our legislation makes accessible dwelling units, ADUs, which are small housing units added to a single-family property, eligible for title I financing. This small addition to title I will make the program an even more powerful home-creation program than it was during its prior peak years and will particularly help families who want to provide a safe, comfortable place for aging parents or young adult children to live.

Collectively, these improvements would help more families own a home, remain in homes they have spent decades in, and find an affordable place to live. I urge my colleagues to cosponsor this bill and support its passage.

Mr. President, I am pleased to join Senator Collins and Senators Van Hollen, Cortez Masto, Smith, and Klobuchar in introducing legislation that would permanently reauthorize the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness, the Council or USICH.

The Council was established during the Reagan administration as part of the landmark McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act of 1987. Over the last three and a half decades, it has led and coordinated the Federal Government's response to homelessness. In 2009, the Homeless Emergency Assistance and Rapid Transition to Housing, HEARTH, Act, which I authored along with Senator Collins, expanded the Council's role, allowing it to work with public, nonprofit, and private stakeholders to develop a national strategic plan to end homelessness. Despite its minimal budget and small staff, the Council has helped guide Federal, State, and local stakeholders in deploying their resources in a smart, effective, and coordinated fashion. The results have been evident. In the decade after USICH published its first plan, overall homelessness declined 9 percent. Family and veteran homelessness declined significantly, as well, with the total numbers dropping nearly 30 percent and 50 percent respectively. In fact, the Council has been able to help 85 communities and 3 States effectively end veteran homelessness.

Despite these successes, homelessness has persisted, and skyrocketing housing prices since 2020 have brought a new surge in homelessness. The Department of Housing and Urban Development's 2024 Annual Homelessness Assessment Report to Congress found that, ``[o]n a single night in January 2024, 771,480 people were experiencing homelessness in the United States.'' This is a record number of Americans experiencing homelessness since the count began. The face of homelessness--which individuals lack a safe, stable home--is also changing. Families with children had the largest increase in homelessness from 2023 to 2024. Indeed, nearly 150,000 children were experiencing homelessness on a single night last year. This staggering increase in homelessness is happening across the country.

USICH helps us meet this challenge by guiding how its 19 Federal member Agencies deploy and leverage their resources with non-Federal partners to help communities effectively address homelessness. We know that smart, coordinated investments in programs that address homelessness and increase affordable housing pay additional dividends. The National Alliance to End Homelessness has found that taxpayers pay an average of $35,578 per year on each chronically homeless individual, while ``based on 22 different studies from across the country, providing permanent supportive housing to chronically homeless people creates net savings of $4,800 per person per year, through reduced spending on jails, hospitals, shelters, and other emergency services.'' In short, helping people avoid homelessness not only helps them, it also saves taxpayers money. USICH's coordinating work helps make our investments to address homelessness more informed and more effective.

Indeed, the Council continues to prove that the government can work and save money in the process. I thank HousingWorks RI for its support, and I urge my colleagues to join us in permanently authorizing USICH.

Mr. President, today I am reintroducing the Helping More Families Save Act with Senator Britt. This bipartisan legislation would help more families in HUD-assisted housing build savings and improve their financial security by creating a pilot program for Family Self- Sufficiency, FSS, universal escrow accounts.

The FSS Program was established under the National Affordable Housing Act of 1990 to help low-income families boost savings and improve their professional, educational, and financial

standing. In 2018, I worked with then-Senator Roy Blunt to expand the program to cover more households. Today, millions of public housing residents, Housing Choice Voucher Program participants, and residents of project-based rental assistance, PBRA, housing are eligible for FSS.

FSS provides two key tools for its participants. First, households work with FSS coordinators to develop long-term financial, professional, or educational goals. FSS coordinators also help connect participants with resources, training, and employment opportunities. Second, the program encourages FSS families to save by providing them with an interest-bearing escrow account. Participants who increase their incomes deposit a portion of their additional earnings into their escrow account instead of paying higher rent, as is typically required under federally subsidized housing programs. Upon graduation from the Program, families can use their escrowed savings to pay for job-related expenses, move to private market housing, buy a home, or save for the future.

After more than 30 years, FSS has become a proven financial independence program. For example, in 2022, 34 percent of FSS graduates no longer needed Federal rental assistance within 1 year of leaving FSS, and nearly 10 percent of graduates were ultimately able to purchase their own home. On average, FSS participants with escrow savings graduated from the program with approximately $10,000 in their accounts. This is no small sum, and it helps HUD-assisted families strengthen their financial stability and move towards greater economic independence.

Despite the program's success and broad eligibility, program participation was effectively capped at about 70,000 enrollees in 2022 simply due to a lack of Federal funding for the required FSS coordinators.

The Helping More Families Save Act would help more Americans access the program by creating a new universal escrow pilot. Under the bill, public housing agencies, PHAs, and PBRA property owners could offer 5,000 additional households escrow accounts identical to those under the current FSS Program without having to wait for an FSS coordinator to be funded by the Federal Government. PHA and PBRA property owners would not be required to offer coordinator services to these new participants, although we expect many will work to offer counseling and support on their own or with outside partners. Moreover, we expect that this pilot will show that those enrolled in the program will be successful and make financially sound decisions.

Our pilot program would help more low-income families improve their financial security, achieve economic independence, and possibly even purchase their own homes, all with minimal cost to the Federal Government.

This is a commonsense, bipartisan proposal that would help more Americans pull themselves out of poverty. It is a win for families, the Federal budget, and our economy. I thank Senator Britt for coleading this legislation and Compass Working Capital and LISC for their support. I urge our colleagues to cosponsor the Helping More Families Save Act and support its passage.

Sen. Jack ReedD-RI · Mar 11, 2025

The FSS Program was established under the National Affordable Housing Act of 1990 to help low-income families boost savings and improve their professional, educational, and financial

Bill Text

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Introduced in SenateIssued March 11, 2025

119th CONGRESS

1st Session

S. 970

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

March 11 (legislative day, March 10), 2025

Mr. Reed (for himself and Mrs. Britt) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs

A BILL

To establish a pilot program to improve the family self-sufficiency program, and for other purposes.

Short title

This Act may be cited as the Helping More Families Save Act.

Family self-sufficiency escrow expansion pilot program

Section 23 of the United States Housing Act of 1937 (42 U.S.C. 1437u) is amended by adding at the end the following:

(p)

Escrow expansion pilot program

(1)

Definitions

In this subsection:

(A)

Covered family

The term covered family means a family that receives assistance under section 8 or 9 of this Act and is enrolled in the pilot program.

(B)

Eligible entity

The term eligible entity means an entity described in subsection (c)(2).

(C)

Pilot program

The term pilot program means the pilot program established under paragraph (2).

(D)

Welfare assistance

The term welfare assistance has the meaning given the term in section 984.103 of title 24, Code of Federal Regulations, or any successor regulation.

(2)

Establishment

The Secretary shall establish a pilot program under which the Secretary shall select not more than 25 eligible entities to establish and manage escrow accounts for not more than 5,000 covered families, in accordance with this subsection.

(3)

Escrow accounts

(A)

In general

An eligible entity selected to participate in the pilot program—

(i)

shall establish an interest-bearing escrow account and place into the account an amount equal to any increase in the amount of rent paid by each covered family in accordance with the provisions of section 3, 8(o), or 8(y), as applicable, that is attributable to increases in earned income by the covered families during the participation of each covered family in the pilot program; and

(ii)

notwithstanding any other provision of law, may use funds it controls under section 8 or 9 for purposes of making the escrow deposit for covered families assisted under, or residing in units assisted under, section 8 or 9 of this title, respectively, provided such funds are offset by the increase in the amount of rent paid by the covered family.

(B)

Income limitation

An eligible entity may not escrow any amounts for any covered family whose adjusted income exceeds 80 percent of the area median income.

(C)

Withdrawals

A covered family shall be able to withdraw funds, including interest earned, from an escrow account established by an eligible entity under the pilot program—

(i)

after the covered family ceases to receive welfare assistance; and

(ii)

(I)

not earlier than the date that is 5 years after the date on which the eligible entity establishes the escrow account under this subsection;

(II)

not later than the date that is 7 years after the date on which the eligible entity establishes the escrow account under this subsection, if the covered family chooses to continue to participate in the pilot program after the date that is 5 years after the date on which the eligible entity establishes the escrow account;

(III)

on the date the covered family ceases to receive housing assistance under section 8 or 9, if such date is earlier than 5 years after the date on which the eligible entity establishes the escrow account;

(IV)

earlier than 5 years after the date on which the eligible entity establishes the escrow account, if the covered family is using the funds to advance a self-sufficiency goal as approved by the eligible entity; or

(V)

under other circumstances in which the Secretary determines an exemption for good cause is warranted.

(D)

Interim recertification

For purposes of the pilot program, a covered family may recertify the income of the covered family multiple times per year, as determined by the Secretary, and not fewer than once per year.

(E)

Contract or plan

A covered family is not required to complete a standard contract of participation or an individual training and services plan in order to participate in the pilot program.

(4)

Effect of increases in family income

Any increase in the earned income of a covered family during the enrollment of the family in the pilot program may not be considered as income or a resource for purposes of eligibility of the family for other benefits, or amount of benefits payable to the family, under any program administered by the Secretary.

(5)

Application

(A)

In general

An eligible entity seeking to participate in the pilot program shall submit to the Secretary an application—

(i)

at such time, in such manner, and containing such information as the Secretary may require by notice; and

(ii)

that includes the number of proposed covered families to be served by the eligible entity under this subsection.

(B)

Geographic and entity variety

The Secretary shall ensure that eligible entities selected to participate in the pilot program—

(i)

are located across various States and in both urban and rural areas; and

(ii)

vary by size and type, including both public housing agencies and private owners of projects receiving project-based rental assistance under section 8.

(6)

Notification and opt-out

An eligible entity participating in the pilot program shall—

(A)

notify covered families of their enrollment in the pilot program;

(B)

provide covered families with a detailed description of the pilot program, including how the pilot program will impact their rent and finances;

(C)

inform covered families that the families cannot simultaneously participate in the pilot program and the Family Self-Sufficiency program under this section; and

(D)

provide covered families with the ability to elect not to participate in the pilot program—

(i)

not less than 2 weeks before the date on which the escrow account is established under paragraph (3); and

(ii)

at any point during the duration of the pilot program.

(7)

Maximum rents

During the term of participation by a covered family in the pilot program, the amount of rent paid by the covered family shall be calculated under the rental provisions of section 3 or 8(o), as applicable.

(8)

Pilot program timeline

(A)

Awards

Not later than 18 months after the date of enactment of this subsection, the Secretary shall select the eligible entities to participate in the pilot program.

(B)

Establishment and term of accounts

An eligible entity selected to participate in the pilot program shall—

(i)

not later than 6 months after selection, establish escrow accounts under paragraph (3) for covered families; and

(ii)

maintain those escrow accounts for not less than 5 years, or until the date the family ceases to receive assistance under section 8 or 9, and, at the discretion of the covered family, not more than 7 years after the date on which the escrow account is established.

(9)

Nonparticipation and housing assistance

(A)

In general

Assistance under section 8 or 9 for a family that elects not to participate in the pilot program shall not be delayed or denied by reason of such election.

(B)

No termination

Housing assistance may not be terminated as a consequence of participating, or not participating, in the pilot program under this subsection for any period of time.

(10)

Study

Not later than 8 years after the date the Secretary selects eligible entities to participate in the pilot program under this subsection, the Secretary shall conduct a study and submit to the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs of the Senate and the Committee on Financial Services of the House of Representatives a report on outcomes for covered families under the pilot program, which shall evaluate the effectiveness of the pilot program in assisting families to achieve economic independence and self-sufficiency, and the impact coaching and supportive services, or the lack thereof, had on individual incomes.

(11)

Waivers

To allow selected eligible entities to effectively administer the pilot program and make the required escrow account deposits under this subsection, the Secretary may waive requirements under this section.

(12)

Termination

The pilot program under this subsection shall terminate on the date that is 10 years after the date of enactment of this subsection.

(13)

Authorization of appropriations

(A)

In general

There is authorized to be appropriated to the Secretary for fiscal year 2026 $5,000,000—

(i)

for technical assistance related to implementation of the pilot program; and

(ii)

to carry out an evaluation of the pilot program under paragraph (10).

(B)

Availability

Any amounts appropriated under this subsection shall remain available until expended.