Housing for local employees; grants for homeownership.
Summary
Housing for local employees; grants for homeownership and workforce housing alternatives. Eliminates the maximum amount a locality may provide (i) to employees of the locality, employees of the school board, and employees of constitutional officers for homeownership grants to purchase primary residences in the locality and (ii) to school division personnel for residential housing assistance grants to provide affordable workforce housing alternatives. The bill also eliminates the requirement that such grants adhere to the Virginia Housing and Development Authority regional sales price and household income limitation guidelines. Current law imposes a maximum grant amount of $25,000 for individual grants per employee, as well as a maximum lifetime cumulative amount of $25,000 per employee. This bill is identical to HB 164.
Bill status
signed
all 5 stages cleared
Introduction
Jan 2026
Committee Review
Feb 2026
Senate Passage
Mar 2026
House of Delegates Passage
Mar 2026
Signed into Law
Apr 2026
Introduced Jan 13, 2026
Signed Apr 6, 2026
Maddy AI version diff · 2 comparisons
What changed between versions
Enrolled
→
Chaptered
·
2 edits
MINOR
The bill has been formally enacted into law as Chapter 79 of the 2026 Virginia Acts of Assembly. The substantive policy text regarding the grant amounts, eligibility, and program rules remains unchanged from the enrolled version. The primary changes are technical formatting adjustments, including the addition of a specific approval date (April 6, 2026) and the reformatting of the text to match the official state publication style.
Scope change
No change in scope or applicability; the bill applies to the same localities and employees as before.
TIMELINE
Added a specific approval date of April 6, 2026, which was not present in the enrolled draft.
TECHNICAL
Reformatted the text layout and spacing to align with the official state publication style for Chaptered bills.
Floor votes · Senate Feb 3, 2026 · House of Delegates Mar 4, 2026
How they voted
38–0
Passed · 1 other
Total votes 39
Feb 3, 2026
D
Democratic20
100% Yea
R
Republican19
94% Yea
Vote distribution
All Yea
All Nay
Mixed
No data
Full legislative history
Actions timeline
Total actions
27
Key actions
10
Committee
4
Apr 6, 2026
Signed into law
Approved by Governor-Chapter 79 (effective 7/1/2026)
executive
Mar 10, 2026
Upper · Passed
Signed by President
upper
Mar 10, 2026
Lower · Passed
Signed by Speaker
lower
Mar 10, 2026
Upper · Passed
Bill text as passed Senate and House (SB328ER)
upper
Mar 4, 2026
Lower · Passed
Passed House (62-Y 35-N 0-A)
lower
Feb 27, 2026
Lower · Passed
Reported from Counties, Cities and Towns (15-Y 6-N)
lower
Feb 10, 2026
Committee
Referred to Committee on Counties, Cities and Towns
lower
Feb 5, 2026
Upper · Passed
Read third time and passed Senate (25-Y 14-N 1-A)
upper
Feb 3, 2026
Upper · Passed
Passed by for the day
upper
Feb 3, 2026
Upper · Passed
Passed by for the day (Voice Vote)
upper
Feb 2, 2026
Upper · Passed
Reported from Local Government (10-Y 4-N 1-A)
upper
Jan 13, 2026
Committee
Referred to Committee on Local Government
upper
1 primary · 1 co-sponsor
Sponsors
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