Recently, Congress passed the largest housing affordability bill in decades, the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act. Most of the attention has centered on what the bill builds and finances: more supply, easier lending, lighter regulation. That matters.
But CMRignite’s recent research surfaced a quieter problem: even strong housing programs fall short when they aren’t built around how people actually experience buying a home.
We studied the path to homeownership for Black adults, and even among people who were ready for a mortgage, the desire was strong, but the path wasn’t clear. What stood in the way wasn’t motivation. It was information gaps, scattered resources, and the absence of someone they trusted to guide them. Nearly 7 in 10 respondents said they’d be more likely to use homebuying tools if they were tailored to them and gathered in one easy place. That maps almost exactly onto what this bill funds: expanded housing counseling, easier access to small mortgages, fewer barriers to getting in the door.
So here’s the opening for housing organizations, policymakers, lenders, developers, and advocates:
A program can’t help people who don’t know it exists. Funding can’t reach communities that don’t understand how to access it. And no initiative earns trust if the people it serves don’t see themselves in it.
This is why CMRignite starts with listening. Before the messaging, before the campaign, we want to know what people aren’t saying out loud: the questions they’re afraid to ask, the information they can’t find, the motivations that actually move them. Start there, and communications stops being awareness for its own sake. It becomes the thing that reduces friction, builds trust, and creates real access.
Closing the gap between opportunity and action takes more than legislation. It takes meeting people with messages and resources that feel clear, credible, and made for them.
Whether people walk through them comes down to what happens next: whether they know these programs exist, understand how to use them, and trust they were built with them in mind. That’s the work we do — and it’s better done together.
So here’s our question for everyone in housing, lending, community development, and policy: now that the funding exists, who’s ready to make sure it reaches the people it’s for?
