1. Short title This Act may be cited as the Housing Innovation Act of 2018 . 2. Findings The Congress finds that— (1) housing should be considered a critical component of our national infrastructure; (2) existing shortages of affordable housing options in many regions are contributing to long commutes, financial stress, environmental pollution, and public health risk; (3) new approaches in the planning, design, and construction of housing need to be explored for diversifying housing options available to the workforce; and (4) greater coordination of existing Federal resources across agencies could significantly expand and diversify the supply of housing. 3. Office of Housing Innovation; Assistant Secretary (a) Assistant Secretary for Housing Innovation Section 4(a) of the Department of Housing and Urban Development Act ( 42 U.S.C. 3533(a) ) is amended: (1) in paragraph (1), by striking 7 Assistant Secretaries and inserting 9 Assistant Secretaries ; and (2) by adding at the end the following new subsection: (i) Office of Housing Innovation (1) Assistant Secretary There shall be in the Department an Assistant Secretary for Housing Innovation, who shall be appointed by the President. (2) Establishment There is established in the Department the Office of Housing Innovation, which shall be headed by the Assistant Secretary for Housing Innovation. (3) Functions The Assistant Secretary of Housing Innovation shall have primary responsibility within the Department for— (A) accumulating and disseminating information regarding innovative practices and successful case studies of new approaches for increasing and diversifying the supply of housing, especially in urban metropolitan regions and surrounding rural regions that are facing challenges of housing shortages, housing affordability, and traffic congestion