Senator Mark Warner (D-VA) on September 4, 2025 reintroduced the Yes in God’s Back Yard (YIGBY) Act (S. 2720), a bill that would authorize funding for technical assistance funding for faith-based organizations, institutions of higher education, and local governments to increase the supply of affordable rental housing, and for other purposes.

The funding would be used to assess how excess property owned by faith-based organizations and institutions of higher education can be developed into affordable rental housing and how existing affordable rental housing can be preserved. The bill would authorize $50 million over six years for the development and preservation of affordable rental housing on property owned by faith-based organizations and institutions of higher education housing for households at or below 60% of area median income, for housing for individuals and families who are homeless or at risk of homelessness, for accessible rental housing for individuals with disabilities, for housing for intergenerational families, and for housing for other special needs populations.

Preserving and expanding the supply of affordable housing for older adults are LeadingAge’s top affordable housing policy goals.

The YIGBY Act would also authorize $50 million over six years for challenge grants to state and local governments who facilitate the preservation and expansion of affordable housing by faith-based organizations and higher education institutions.

Senators Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-DE), Andy Kim (D-NJ), and Angela Alsobrooks (D-MD) have cosponsored the bill, which LeadingAge has endorsed.

Read Sen. Warner’s press release on the bill here.