MADISON, Wis. (CBS 58) -- A bill working its way through Congress aims to make housing more affordable, and every Wisconsin congressional member voted in favor of it except for Tom Tiffany, who did not vote.

Somewhere to live is something everyone needs, but it has become increasingly expensive. The 21st Century Road to Housing Act aims to make housing more affordable for people from all socio-economic backgrounds.

One major piece of the legislation that has been getting a lot of discussion is the portion that would ban institutional investors from buying single-family homes. If a company owns 350 or more homes, it would not be able to purchase any more in the future.

“In Milwaukee alone, we know that there’s thousands of units owned by a couple of different investor groups, and that will no longer be allowed. Those units are going to be forced into the market,” Elmer Moore Jr., CEO of WHEDA, said.

Increasing the housing supply is one of the biggest objectives of the legislation, which is why it also takes steps to streamline the process of building new homes by making changes to the review process.

“The bill sort of tries to streamline the federal environmental review process, which can hold up a lot of housing developments and just sort of drag the process on, which drives up cost,” Emma Waters, a senior housing policy analyst at the Bipartisan Policy Center, said.

One part of the bill that the Wisconsin Housing and Economic Development Authority says could be transformational is permanently authorizing the HOME Investment Partnerships Program. The program gives grants to local municipalities to build or repair homes for low-income families, whether that be rental properties or homes that can be purchased.

“It means that we can shift the conversation from whether it will exist to how much it will be funded. It is a number of really important changes like that, that are in this bill, that will affect, I believe, housing in the future,” Moore said.

A version of the bill has passed out of both the House and Senate. The latest version passed out of the House last week and still must pass the Senate before it can go to the President’s desk.

The Bipartisan Policy Center has a breakdown of the bill available online, which you can read by clicking here. You can also read the bill by clicking here.