The Build Housing with Care Act of 2025 requires HUD to create a competitive grant program that funds the design, planning, construction, conversion, retrofitting, preservation, long-term leasing, or renovation of facilities where affordable housing and eligible child care providers are co-located. Grants may be awarded to a wide set of eligible entities — from public housing agencies and community development financial institutions to nonprofit developers and Tribal entities — and HUD may allow subgrants and capitalization through community development financial institutions.
The bill targets gaps where housing and child care intersect: it prioritizes projects that serve child care deserts, low-income or rural communities, Head Start or Early Head Start providers, partnerships with CDFIs, and projects that commit to preserving residents’ housing without eviction. Funding is capped at $10 million per award, with a $100 million annual authorization for fiscal years 2025–2030, and HUD must publish technical assistance and annual program reports; the Comptroller General must also produce a GAO study on child care access for public housing residents.
At a Glance
What It Does
HUD must run a competitive grant program funding co-location facilities that combine affordable housing with eligible child care providers, including capital and pre-development costs. Grants can be passed through to governments, nonprofit housing developers, public housing agencies, Tribes, and CDFIs, and CDFIs may capitalize loans with the funds.
Who It Affects
Public housing agencies, nonprofit and for-profit housing developers using LIHTC or New Markets credits, eligible child care providers (including Head Start providers), community development financial institutions, Tribal housing entities, and residents of HUD-assisted housing. State and local permitting and licensing authorities will be involved for siting and licensing compliance.
Why It Matters
It creates a federal funding stream to address two linked barriers to work and economic stability — affordable housing and child care — by incentivizing on-site or nearby child care. The structure emphasizes preservation, partnerships with CDFIs, and measurable outputs (child care slots, staff, resident use), making it a practical vehicle for integrated community development projects.
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What This Bill Actually Does
The core of the bill directs HUD to stand up a grant program that finances physical projects that pair housing and child care in the same building, on the same site, or close enough that the provider primarily serves residents. Eligible activities include planning and design, construction, acquisition, conversion of existing space, retrofitting for child care uses, preservation, long-term leasing, and renovation.
HUD must consult HHS, Treasury (CDFI Fund), and USDA Rural Development while designing the program.
Applicants must certify several programmatic items: that the child care provider is or will be eligible for Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG) vouchers or Head Start support, that grant-funded activity will not lead to resident evictions, and that the project complies with environmental and land-use rules (with limited exceptions for pre-development planning). The bill requires a business plan and, for new providers, licensing applications and contracts that support enrollment of low-income children or partnerships with government entities.HUD must prioritize projects serving child care deserts, low-income or rural communities, those tied to Head Start or similar programs, and projects partnered with CDFIs.
Grant awards are limited to $10 million per eligible entity; HUD can let recipients pass funds to appropriate public or nonprofit partners and allow CDFIs to capitalize financial products. The statute limits certain uses of funds: up to 10% may be used for pre-development and up to 10% for CDFI-partnership capacity building or pre-development support.To support implementation and accountability, HUD must provide technical assistance and best practices, and report annually on outputs such as number of grants, child care slots created or preserved, staff employed by providers, resident use and employment with the child care program, and demographics of residents benefiting.
Separately, the GAO must complete a study within 12 months on child care availability and affordability for public housing residents, including how other federal programs and financing tools have been used and what legal barriers exist.
The Five Things You Need to Know
HUD must prioritize projects in child care deserts, low‑income communities, or rural areas and projects tied to Head Start or similar designations.
Grant awards are capped at $10,000,000 per eligible entity; HUD may award multiple grants competitively.
Congress authorizes $100,000,000 per year for FY2025–FY2030 to fund the program.
Recipients may use up to 10% of an award for pre‑development and up to 10% to partner with CDFIs for technical assistance and capacity building.
The Comptroller General (GAO) must deliver a study and report within 12 months assessing child care availability, federal program efficacy, financing uses, and legal barriers for public housing residents.
Section-by-Section Breakdown
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Short title
Declares the Act’s name as the "Build Housing with Care Act of 2025." This is boilerplate but signals congressional intent to link housing and child care in a single statutory initiative.
Purpose
States the statutory purpose: expand access to affordable housing and child care through co-location grants. That purpose guides HUD’s rulemaking and prioritization framework and provides a statutory hook for cross-agency consultation and reporting requirements.
Establishment and interagency consultation
Directs HUD to establish a competitive grant program and requires HUD to consult HHS (ACF), Treasury (CDFI Fund), and USDA Rural Development. The consultation requirement means program design should reflect early childhood funding rules (HHS), CDFI lending/technical assistance experience, and rural development issues, which will shape eligible activities, scoring, and allowable partnerships.
Application requirements and award priorities
Applications must include certifications on child care eligibility for CCDBG or Head Start, non‑eviction assurances, environmental and land‑use compliance or plans to reach it, and a business plan (or commitment to submit one within a year). HUD must prioritize projects serving child care deserts, low‑income and rural areas, providers tied to Head Start or with high shares of very‑low income children, and partnerships with CDFIs. Those priorities effectively steer awards toward projects that expand access in underserved areas and align with federal child care subsidy delivery systems.
Use of funds, pass‑throughs, technical assistance, and reporting
Grants are limited to capital and related pre‑development activities for co‑location facilities; HUD may allow subgrants to governments, nonprofits, PHAs, Tribally designated housing entities, and CDFIs. CDFIs may capitalize loans with award funds. The statute places modest limits (10% caps) on pre‑development and CDFI partnership spending to preserve the award’s capital focus. HUD must publish best practices and provide technical assistance and must submit an annual implementation report with detailed operational metrics.
Funding levels and definitions
Authorizes $100 million per year for FY2025–FY2030 and sets a per‑award cap of $10 million. The statute also defines key terms — eligible entities (wide list including developers using LIHTC or NMTC), co‑location facility, child care desert, CDFI, and Tribal entities — which defines the applicant pool and the qualifying geography and programmatic scope.
GAO study on child care access in public housing
Directs the Comptroller General to study child care availability and affordability for public housing residents, including how federal financing tools have been used, the interaction of housing subsidies with child care affordability, legal barriers at state and local levels, and the effectiveness of tax credits and other federal supports. GAO must report within 12 months, feeding evidence back into program adjustments and congressional oversight.
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Explore Housing in Codify Search →Who Benefits and Who Bears the Cost
Every bill creates winners and losers. Here's who stands to gain and who bears the cost.
Who Benefits
- Residents of HUD‑assisted and affordable housing — gain closer access to licensed child care that can lower transportation time and child care costs and increase parents’ ability to work or train, particularly in child care deserts or rural areas.
- Eligible child care providers (including Head Start/Early Head Start and providers that accept CCDBG vouchers) — receive capital and pre‑development support to open, preserve, or expand facilities, stabilizing operations and enabling enrollment of low‑income children.
- Community development financial institutions (CDFIs) — can receive awards to capitalize lending products or to deliver technical assistance, which expands their product offerings and local lending capacity and strengthens housing/child care project finance pipelines.
- Nonprofit and for‑profit affordable housing developers and public housing agencies — get a new funding tool to integrate on‑site child care into housing projects, improving the service mix and marketability of affordable units.
- Tribes and Tribally designated housing entities — receive explicit eligibility and a route to invest in combined housing and child care infrastructure that meets local cultural and service delivery needs.
Who Bears the Cost
- HUD — must design, implement, monitor, and report on the program within existing administrative resources unless Congress provides additional administrative funding, increasing HUD workload.
- Project sponsors and developers — must meet program certifications, environmental and licensing requirements, and produce feasible business plans (or do so within a year), which raises pre‑award transaction costs and project complexity.
- State and local governments and licensing agencies — may face new pressure to expedite licensing, zoning, and permitting for co‑location facilities and to reconcile land‑use rules that currently impede child care siting in housing.
- Child care providers — while receiving capital support, they must meet licensing, subsidy eligibility, and quality standards and may take on new operating responsibilities tied to serving public housing populations, including managing voucher populations.
- CDFIs and nonprofit partners — may need to devote staff time to capacity building, underwriting blended finance, or managing subgrants, which can strain small institutions without additional operating support.
Key Issues
The Core Tension
The bill aims to solve two resource problems at once — scarce affordable housing and scarce child care — by funding capital that ties them together, but that approach forces a trade‑off: capital grants create physical space but not always sustainable operating revenue or licensing relief; funding projects without parallel operating subsidies, clear tenant protections, and streamlined local licensing risks building facilities that sit empty, serve few low‑income families, or fail to protect residents from displacement.
The bill threads a practical needle — capital funding for co‑located child care — but leaves important implementation questions unresolved. The statute ties grant eligibility and priority to CCDBG and Head Start eligibility, which connects projects to public subsidy flows but also means projects must navigate complicated state subsidy rules and rate structures; a project that builds space but cannot secure stable voucher revenue may struggle to be financially sustainable.
Similarly, the $10 million per‑award cap is sizable but may be insufficient for large mixed‑use developments in high‑cost markets, pushing those projects to cobble together LIHTC, NMTC, private debt, and other sources and increasing transaction complexity.
Environmental review and land‑use compliance are required unless HUD deems the activity limited to pre‑development, but local zoning and licensing barriers — especially restrictions on child care in residential buildings or parking and outdoor play requirements — could stall projects. The statute requires non‑eviction certifications, but it does not prescribe enforceable tenant protections, long‑term affordability periods, or specific lease terms for child care providers, leaving questions about how projects will ensure resident access versus broader community use.
Finally, small home‑based child care providers receive some pathway through technical assistance partnerships with CDFIs, but converting home‑based care to licensed center‑based models frequently requires operational subsidies beyond capital, which the bill does not fund directly.
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