Credit unions can help fix the housing crisis. But Congress must act.

Housing is the defining financial challenge facing millions of Americans right now. Not in an abstract, technocratic way, but in a personal one. Young couples who have done everything right and still cannot afford to buy in the neighborhood where they grew up. Renters watching their monthly costs climb year after year. Families who assumed homeownership was the next step and are now wondering if it will ever happen. Our own economists have tracked this closely: the median home price surpassed 30 percent of the median income in early 2022 and has not returned to affordable levels since.

Credit unions exist to serve people in exactly that position. As member-owned, not-for-profit cooperatives, every dollar they earn goes back into the institution or to their members, not to outside shareholders. Credit unions write the small-dollar mortgages that bigger banks tend to pass on. According to the NCUA’s analysis of HMDA data, credit unions outperformed other banking institutions in the share of mortgage loans originated to low-income borrowers. That is not an accident. It is the result of being structurally accountable to the people they serve.

That is why we strongly support bipartisan efforts in both chambers of Congress to pass an affordable housing bill. Such legislation would directly expand the tools credit unions and other community lenders use every day. FHA loan limits would be raised for multifamily housing, making it viable to finance more affordable apartment construction. Other initiatives include reforming the HOME Investment Partnerships Program, which channels federal dollars to states and cities to support lower-income households; strengthens rural housing programs; and improving access to small-dollar mortgages, the entry-level product that first-time buyers depend on.

Bipartisan legislation would also includes regulatory provisions that directly benefit credit unions, and those provisions are not a side note. They are part of the housing story. America’s Credit Unions’ letter to House leadership makes the case clearly: when credit unions spend fewer resources on outdated compliance requirements, they are able to make more loans.

Here is how that plays out in practice. The Credit Union Board Modernization Act provision reduces the mandatory board meeting requirement from 12 times per year to six. Many credit union board members are volunteers made up of local business owners, retired teachers, and long-time community members. They give their time because they believe in the mission. Cutting the bureaucratic meeting schedule does not weaken governance. It frees up capable people to focus on the decisions that matter: strategic direction, lending policy, and member service.

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Two other provisions address something that deserves more attention: the shortage of community lenders in underserved areas. The Mentor-Protégé program provision formally pairs smaller and minority depository institution credit unions with larger ones, giving community-focused lenders the resources and institutional knowledge to grow. The American Access to Banking Act provision streamlines the process of starting a new credit union from scratch. That process is currently complicated enough that very few new institutions ever get off the ground. Simplifying it means more credit unions in more places, including communities that have been underserved and left behind by traditional banking for decades.

This is where the housing provisions and the credit union provisions connect. The communities that need affordable housing the most are often the same communities that lack access to member-owned, community-rooted lenders. More credit unions means more institutions willing to sit across the table from a borrower with a thin credit file, a complicated employment history, or a modest down payment. It means more competition for mortgage business in places where borrowers currently have few options. It means more lenders with a genuine stake in the neighborhood doing well. It means the path to economic freedom is an option for every single American family.

Cooperative finance goes hand in hand with access to affordable housing. Congress is primed to strengthen that connection at a critical time. All they must do is act.