HOMEFRONT Act Exempts Military Housing from Historic Review, Bans NDAs for Tenant Leases

The new HOMEFRONT Act of 2025 makes two significant, if seemingly unrelated, changes to how military housing is managed and rented. Think of it as a policy bill that simultaneously speeds up construction and gives tenants more power. The bill, formally the Housing Our Military Effectively For Readiness, Operations, and Neutralization of Threats Act of 2025, focuses on existing housing for military families and unaccompanied service members.

Clearing the Way: Less Red Tape for Military Housing

The first major change deals with historic preservation. Right now, if the Department of Defense (DoD) wants to renovate, demolish, or significantly alter older military housing, they often have to go through a lengthy review process under the National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA). This bill essentially gives most of that existing housing a pass on those rules. Specifically, facilities used as military family or unaccompanied service member housing as of the bill’s enactment date are exempt from the NHPA review requirements (Section 307104 of Title 54, U.S. Code).

What does this mean for the person on the ground? If you’re a service member waiting for housing to be modernized or rebuilt, this could speed things up significantly by cutting administrative time. However, there’s a trade-off: this exemption removes a layer of oversight that protects potentially historic structures. While the Secretary of Defense can opt a tiny fraction (up to 0.1% of units) back into the review process, the main takeaway is that the DoD gains a lot of flexibility to manage its aging housing stock without having to worry about preservationists stepping in. The one hard limit is that any facility already listed on the National Register of Historic Places as of January 20, 2025, still has to follow the old rules.

Silencing the Silence: Invalidating NDAs

The second part of the HOMEFRONT Act is a big win for military families renting privatized housing. It targets Non-Disclosure Agreements (NDAs) that landlords sometimes force tenants to sign. An NDA is a contract that prevents you from discussing certain things—in this case, often the condition of the property or the services provided.

This bill bans landlords in privatized military housing from requiring a tenant or prospective tenant to sign an NDA as a condition of signing, continuing, or ending a lease, or receiving related services (Section 2890 of Title 10, U.S. Code). If a landlord tries to sneak one in, the agreement is automatically void. This is crucial because NDAs have historically been used to prevent tenants from publicly reporting maintenance issues, mold, or poor service quality, effectively silencing families who live in substandard housing.

Even better, this ban is retroactive. If you signed an NDA related to your military housing lease before this law passed, that agreement is now invalid. The only exception is if the NDA was signed as part of settling an actual lawsuit. This means that military families who previously felt stuck or silenced now have the freedom to speak up about housing conditions without fear of violating a contract. It’s a huge step toward ensuring accountability for the companies managing these essential military facilities.