Vice President Harris and Acting Secretary Todman announced funding for communities to eliminate barriers to building housing, production, and launch innovative strategies to address local housing needs.
WASHINGTON - Today, Vice President Kamala Harris and HUD Acting Secretary Adrianne Todman announced that the Biden-Harris Administration is awarding $85 million in grant funding for the Pathways to Removing Obstacles to Housing (PRO Housing) program. PRO Housing aims to identify and remove barriers to affordable housing production and preservation, and lower housing costs.
PRO Housing provides grant funding to communities actively taking steps and demonstrating progress in addressing needless local housing barriers. Winners of the PRO Housing competition will update state and local housing plans, revise land use policies, streamline the permitting process for housing construction, and take other actions to create more housing-forward communities. Grants will also be used to preserve existing affordable housing units, provide development subsidies to create new affordable units, and increase access to homeownership.
“President Biden and I believe that every American deserves affordable housing so they have a roof over their head and a place to call home. That is why we have a plan to build millions of new units of affordable housing in communities all across our nation, which will bring down the cost of housing for renters and help more Americans buy a home,” said Vice President Harris. “Today, I am proud to announce that we are taking a critical step forward by investing $85 million to help more than 20 communities throughout our country remove barriers to building more affordable housing.”
Common barriers identified in the PRO Housing applications include the high cost of land and development, lack of available units, underutilized vacant land and property, aging housing stock, inadequate infrastructure, displacement pressures, risks of extreme weather or environmental hazards, outdated land-use policies, and permitting processes.
“President Biden and Vice President Harris have prioritized reducing housing costs,” said HUD Acting Secretary Todman. “As I travel across the country, I hear from people all the time, including builders, elected officials, and other stakeholders about how difficult it is to build housing. This is why I am pleased to announce our first round of PRO Housing funding which will provide communities with incentives to address their local housing barriers. This expands on our ongoing efforts to lower housing costs by increasing the housing supply.”
The demand was substantial. HUD received considerable interest in the first round of PRO Housing funding. Applications were submitted from more than 175 communities – representing a wide variety of demographics, geographies, and population sizes – across 47 states and territories. Successful applicants demonstrated a commitment to eliminating barriers to housing and progress toward creating more housing-forward communities. The winners of PRO Housing are actively deploying strategies to boost supply reform local regulations incentivize development prevent displacement encourage community-driven solutions Given broad interest urgent need address supply applicants provided technical assistance Later year HUD release additional $100 million available round two competition President included additional $100 million FY25 budget
“The creativity innovation demonstrated by communities’ proposals made it difficult select 21 winners All across nation locally led community-driven approaches begun close gap” said Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary Community Planning Development Marion McFadden “This funding accelerate number homes produced rehabilitated enable investments community development”
PRO Housing awards empower continue address construction preservation advance opportunities Today’s announcement builds upon actions taken through Biden-Harris Administration’s Supply Action Plan Strategic Plan boost supply lower costs families ensure equitable resilient sustainable outlined fact sheet released White House earlier today
To highlight how each award winner is addressing their local needs HUD created Profiles awardee profiles available here More information competition found here
PRO HOUSING WINNERS
State Name Award Amount AL Montgomery $3 581 160 CA Anaheim $3 497 329 CA Arcata $1 000 000 CA Los Angeles County $6 700 000 CA Metropolitan Transportation Commission (Bay Area) $5 000 000 CO Denver $4 506 262 DC/MD/VA Metropolitan Washington Council Governments $3 509112 HI State Hawaii $6 631950 IA Iowa City $3 752000 ID Ketchum $2 500000 MA Metropolitan Area Planning Council $3 000000 MN Metropolitan Council (Twin Cities) $4 000000 NJ Newark $4 000000 NY New York City$399695680 OR Bend$5000 PA Philadelphia$332992906 RI State Rhode Island$3831200 TN Metropolitan Government Nashville Davidson County$5000 TX Fort Worth$5000 WA Seattle$5000 WI Milwaukee$21000 TOTAL21 AWARDS8492589992
