Dive Brief:
- The Biden administration has selected 21 communities to receive about $85 million in grants to remove barriers to affordable housing production, according to a Wednesday news release.
- The funds will help states and local governments update housing plans, land use policies and permitting process, the news release says.
- Applicants requested 13 times more funding than was available through the Housing and Urban Development Department’s Pathways to Removing Obstacles to Housing program. The agency will release $100 million more later this year in round two of the competitive grant process.
Dive Insight:
“In communities across our nation, the cost of housing is just too high,” Vice President Kamala Harris said at a June 26 press teleconference. “Part of the reason for the high cost of housing is a lack of supply.” Experts have estimated that the nation is short by about 4 million to 7 million homes.
Barriers to affordable housing development include expensive land and insufficient infrastructure, such as connections to the electric grid, Harris explained. She pointed to local projects that will address such challenges: The city of Milwaukee will use its slice of federal money to subsidize affordable housing development on vacant lots and in place of abandoned buildings.
The largest grant awards went to Hawai’i and Los Angeles County, with each receiving about $6.7 million. Hawai’i’s plans include establishing a statewide bank to finance infrastructure needed for housing and working more with counties that are revamping their housing regulations. Meanwhile, LA County will update land use policies to encourage housing development on unincorporated areas and update transit-oriented development plans.
The winning communities will also join a technical assistance cohort to learn from one another and get implementation support, the White House press release says.
