This week, Congress did something it doesn’t do often these days — it passed a major piece of legislation with real bipartisan support. The 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act cleared the Senate 85-5 and the House 358-32, aimed at the nation’s housing shortage: easing zoning and permitting barriers, expanding support for community development financial institutions and minority depository institutions, funding repairs to aging housing stock, and limiting how many single-family homes large institutional investors can buy up in a single market.

Then, hours before the scheduled signing ceremony, the President called it off — saying he won’t sign it until Congress also passes a separate elections bill he’s been pushing. Because the bill already passed both chambers, it’s set to become law automatically within ten days unless it’s vetoed outright. But the delay itself sends a message, and it’s worth sitting with.

I’ll say this without picking a fight over the politics of it: when housing legislation that took nearly two years of work, and that includes real support for minority depository institutions, de novo community banks, and home repair grants in older neighborhoods, gets tied up as leverage for something else entirely — communities like ours are the ones left waiting. We have neighborhoods in Birmingham that need exactly the kind of support this bill puts on the table: housing rehabilitation dollars, easier paths for community banks to serve their own neighborhoods, and protection from investors buying up starter homes faster than families can compete for them.

Legislation like this doesn’t fix a housing shortage by itself, and nobody serious is claiming it does. But when something this rare — genuine bipartisan agreement — gets held hostage to an unrelated fight, it’s fair for us to ask our representatives, on both sides, to keep their eye on the families actually waiting on the other end of these decisions.

I’ll keep watching this one and report back when it’s actually signed into law.