The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) on Wednesday announced the availability of $100 million in new, competitive grant funding that is designed to address bureaucratic impediments to the construction of new housing while lowering the costs to rent or buy a home.
“Through HUD’s Pathways to Removing Obstacles to Housing (PRO Housing) program, communities across the nation are eligible to apply for funding to remove barriers to local housing production,” HUD said in an announcement of the competitive funding.
Alongside HUD’s own announcement, the White House released a “fact sheet” to detail PRO Housing’s inclusion in the Biden-Harris administration’s housing supply action plan. The White House also seeks to address the causes of affordability challenges faced by homebuyers and renters alike.
“This funding is designed to cut red tape, and make sure that we’re building more homes, especially affordable homes, with urgency because people need help now,” Adrianne Todman, the acting secretary of HUD, said in a statement. “The Biden-Harris administration has made it a priority to reduce housing costs by increasing our nation’s housing supply and our partnerships with local communities are critical to achieving this goal.”
The PRO Housing initiative is designed to address barriers to housing construction, including restrictive land-use policies that usually reside at the local level. It also aims to “facilitate the construction of new housing and repairs to existing homes and cut energy costs,” with grants going to local governments, states, metropolitan planning organizations (MPOs) and multijurisdictional entities. Individual grants will range from $1 million to $7 million, HUD explained.
HUD initially announced its plans for PRO Housing funds in June, with Vice President Kamala Harris telling reporters about issues the government hoped to address through the program.
In that announcement, HUD identified some common themes. These 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displacement pressures, risks of climate-fueled extreme weather or environment hazards, high energy costs, and outdated land-use and permitting policies and processes.”
The deadline for this round of funding applications is Oct. 15, 2024.
