Last week in Washington, D.C., leaders from the National Association of Hispanic Real Estate Professionals (NAHREP) and the American Business Immigration Coalition (ABIC) each brought a focused message to Capitol Hill: housing policy and immigration policy can no longer be addressed in isolation. While their engagements were separate, the messages delivered were undeniably aligned—and deeply interconnected.
At NAHREP’s 2026 Homeownership & Housing Policy Conference, industry leaders and policymakers gathered to confront the nation’s housing challenges—most notably supply constraints, affordability, and access to homeownership. At the same time, ABIC continued its work on immigration reform, engaging lawmakers on the economic necessity of a stable and reliable workforce. Together, these parallel efforts underscored a shared reality: the housing crisis and workforce challenges are two sides of the same coin.
The newly released 2026 State of Hispanics in Construction Report reinforces this connection with compelling data. Hispanic workers now make up 31% of the U.S. construction workforce and account for the majority of net new workers entering the industry in recent years. In many trades, they are not just contributors—they are essential to maintaining and expanding housing production capacity.
This presents a clear and urgent challenge. Policymakers continue to call for increased housing production to address affordability, yet the workforce needed to meet that demand faces ongoing instability due to unresolved immigration policy. This disconnect is not theoretical—it is already impacting the pace of construction and the availability of housing.
As demand continues to grow—driven in large part by Hispanic homebuyers—supply is struggling to keep up. Without a stable and growing construction workforce, housing inventory will remain constrained, costs will continue to rise, and homeownership will move further out of reach for working families across the country.
That was the underlying message echoed throughout Capitol Hill last week: you cannot meaningfully address the housing crisis without addressing the workforce, and you cannot address the workforce without confronting immigration policy.
Both NAHREP and ABIC approached lawmakers with pragmatic, solutions-oriented perspectives rooted in economic reality. While their missions differ, the overlap in outcomes is clear—housing affordability, workforce stability, and economic growth are all deeply interconnected.
The stakes could not be higher.
If current trends continue, the gap between housing supply and demand will widen, further straining affordability and limiting access to homeownership. More importantly, it risks undermining the very workforce that is both building the nation’s housing and driving its future demand.
The path forward requires alignment between policy and reality. Immigration reform is not simply a political issue—it is a foundational component of the nation’s economic and housing strategy.
Last week’s engagements in Washington made one thing clear: the future of housing in America will depend not only on how much we build, but on whether we support the workforce that makes that growth possible.