Published
September 15, 2026
For businesses across the country, America’s housing shortage is showing up in a very practical way: workers cannot always find homes in their communities, and businesses are struggling to keep up with demand. That puts housing squarely on the business agenda.
At the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s 2026 Building for Growth Housing Summit, policymakers, business leaders, and housing experts gathered in Washington, DC to discuss what it will take to build more homes and make housing more accessible across the country.
The conversation comes at a critical moment. With the bipartisan 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act now law, attention is turning to implementation and the steps needed to increase housing supply.
Bipartisan Action Delivered. Now Comes Implementation.
Members of Congress pointed to the bipartisan work that produced ROAD to Housing Act as well as the urgency they hear from constituents who increasingly rank housing among their top concerns.
“Affordable housing is the number one issue in my district because we have communities with 800 open jobs, and the only barrier to filling up those jobs is the lack of housing,” said House Financial Services Housing and Insurance Subcommittee Chairman Mike Flood (R-NE)
The ROAD to Housing Act aims to alleviate the barriers to building more housing and is a clear example of lawmakers from both sides of the aisle coming together to deliver bipartisan solutions.
“I think the people of the United States wanted to see something like this,” said House Financial Services Housing and Insurance Subcommittee Ranking Member Emanuel Cleaver (D-MO). “The overwhelming majority want the government to work. They want people that they elect to come to Washington and get something done.”
During the Summit, House Financial Services Committee Chairman French Hill (R-AR) outlined how the supply-side housing reform law can help clear barriers to building more homes and how its passage was a priority.
“There was a commitment from the top and both committees that we thought housing reform, from a supply side point of view, was critical and long overdue,” Rep. French said.
The Business Community’s Role in Growing Housing Supply
Housing is one of the biggest barriers to economic growth and opportunity. While legislation is helping remove obstacles to building, solving the shortage requires leadership from every sector — not policy alone.
During the Summit, Ross Perot Jr., Chairman, The Perot Companies and Hillwood and Chair of the U.S. Chamber Board of Directors, emphasized the integration of residential and industrial development.
“If you do residential right, you have a huge impact on families and society,” he said.
Perot Jr. also advocated for right-sizing regulations to foster economic growth and discussed the important role of infrastructure in regional development.
“The United States is the most powerful nation in the world, there are a lot of rules and regulations, if we modify those rule and regulations and let American entrepreneurs and business thrive, we can get a lot done,” he said.
Through its American Dream Initiative, JPMorganChase is helping increase housing supply and supporting homeownership across the U.S. The firm is deploying capital and working with policymakers to help advance proven solutions.
Tim Berry, JPMorganChase’s Global Head of Corporate Responsibility and Chairman of the Mid-Atlantic Region, highlighted the company’s initiative in conversation with U.S. Chamber Executive Vice President Neil Bradley.
“It's about…growing those communities, growing the national economy, and building long-term prosperity so that young people believe in the system and believe that they can afford a home,” he said.
Resilience and durability are crucial for strong homes and even stronger communities. Industry leaders discussed how innovative materials, smarter building practices, risk-informed decision-making, and community development strategies can help create stronger homes and more resilient communities.
“A home is not truly affordable if a family cannot insure, maintain, and remain in it after a storm,” said Mackenzie Smith Ledet, Head of Government Affairs, James Hardie Industries.
The Business Impact of the Housing Shortage
America’s housing shortage is having a real impact on businesses, driving up costs and making it harder for workers to live near where they work.
“If we remember that houses are where jobs go to sleep at night. Then, we must also acknowledge that the cost of housing ultimately is the cost of doing business,” said Maryland Department of Housing and Community Development Secretary Jake Day.
When workers cannot live within a reasonable distance of their jobs, businesses have a harder time keeping the people they need and filling the jobs that drives growth.
“Your best talent is not working for your company if they have to drive too far from the place they can afford. You're not going to retain them efficiently and economically,” said Karen Purcell, Head of Community Development Banking at JPMorganChase.
Building the Housing Workforce
The housing industry is facing a significant workforce shortage, with an estimated 250,000 – 450,000 open jobs across the sector. Builders are also struggling to find and retain the skilled workers needed to keep pace with demand for new homes.
“[In Baltimore], we have a workforce shortage but then we have all these unemployed youths. How do we connect these young men and women to a good middle-class job?” shared Brendan McCluskey, founder and president of Trident Builders, a commercial general contractor located in Baltimore, MD, and a member of the U.S. Chamber's Small Business Council.
From apprenticeships to skills training, businesses are creating pathways into skilled-trades careers while helping expand the workforce needed to build more housing.
Investing in the skills trades is smart economic policy, and organizations like the Lowe’s Foundation are providing solutions. Jana Barresi, Vice President, Government Affairs, Lowe’s and Board Member, Lowe’s Foundation shared how the Foundation initially committed $50 million over five years to place at least 50,000 people into the skilled trades and met that goal a year early. As a result, the Foundation boosted its commitment to invest $250 million over the next 10 years to get at least 250,000 people into skilled trades careers.
Housing Summit workforce panelists called for a new narrative around the skilled trades, highlighting the opportunity and career pathways they offer.
“These are great pathways, great careers. It’s not a fallback relative to college. It is an option that has a lot of upside,” Barresi said.
What the U.S. Chamber is Doing
The U.S. Chamber is making housing a priority for America’s economic growth, working with businesses and policymakers to address the barriers that make it harder to build and afford homes. It is approaching the housing challenge from three angles: reducing barriers to building, increasing access to capital, and strengthening the workforce needed to buy more homes.
Through its new Housing Advisory Council, the U.S. Chamber is bringing together the companies that build, finance and supply housing to use their firsthand experience to advance practical solutions at the federal, state and local levels. The goal is to help more Americans find housing in the communities where they live and work while giving businesses and communities the foundation they need to grow.
The U.S. Chamber has also helped elevate housing as a national economic priority, including through support for the bipartisan 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act, the most comprehensive federal housing package in decades, and through convening business leaders, policymakers, and housing experts at the U.S. Chamber's Housing Summit. Building on that momentum, we are expanding our work with state and local chambers and community leaders to help advance housing solutions on the ground.
To support those efforts, the U.S. Chamber partnered with the American Enterprise Institute's (AEI) Housing Center to develop Strong Foundations: A Playbook for Housing and Economic Growth, a collection of more than 6,000 localized housing playbooks covering all 50 states and thousands of metropolitan areas, counties, and cities. Using local data, these playbooks identify housing pressures and highlight opportunities to increase supply.
Over the coming year, the U.S. Chamber will work with state and local chambers, business leaders, and community stakeholders to put these tools into action. Using the playbooks as a roadmap, communities can better understand their local housing challenges, identify policy and regulatory barriers to housing production, build support for supply-focused solutions, and learn from places that are making progress. By convening local stakeholders and sharing best practices from across the country, we aim to help communities translate data into action and advance housing strategies that support economic growth, workforce development, and long-term competitiveness.
The Bottom Line
The private sector has a critical role to play in addressing America’s housing shortage and businesses are working to advance solutions. From investing in housing and expanding access to capital to supporting workforce development and advocating for policies that make it easier to build, the business community is helping turn the challenge of housing supply into an opportunity for growth.
About the author
Jen Scungio
Jen Scungio is the Senior Director, Editorial and Digital Media at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
