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 first ever 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. Metro Washington Council of Governments, DC/MD/VA was awarded $3.5 million to expand housing supply and lower housing costs.
PRO Housing provides grant funding to communities actively taking steps and demonstrating progress in addressing needless local housing barriers to housing production. 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.
In the DC, MD and VA (DMV) area, one in eight renters is behind on rent and there is a high-income disparity throughout the region. The Metro Washington Council of Governments will use the PRO Housing grant funding to help reform local land use policies to expand access to fair housing choice, increase affordable housing supply, particularly in areas that have historically lacked such housing, and implement policies designed to preserve affordable housing.
“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 to housing 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housing stock, inadequate infrastructure, displacement pressures, risks of extreme weather or environment hazards, and outdated, land-use policies, and permitting policies and processes.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 housing supply, reform local regulations, incentivize development, prevent displacement, and encourage community driven solutions. Given the broad interest and urgent need to address housing supply, applicants will be provided technical assistance to address housing costs. Later this year, HUD will release an additional $100 million in funding available for round two of the competition. The President also included an additional $100 million for this program in his FY 25 budget.
“The creativity and innovation demonstrated by communities’ housing supply proposals made it difficult to select the 21 winners. All across the nation locally led, community-driven approaches have begun to close the housing gap,” said Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Community Planning and Development Marion McFadden. “This funding will accelerate the number of homes produced and rehabilitated and enable investments in community development.”
PRO Housing awards will empower communities to continue to address barriers to housing construction and preservation and advance housing opportunities. Today’s announcement builds upon actions taken through the Biden-Harris Administration’s Housing Supply Action Plan and HUD’s Strategic Plan to boost housing supply, lower costs for families, ensure equitable development, and build resilient, sustainable communities. These actions are outlined in a fact sheet which was released by the White House earlier today.
To highlight how each award winner is addressing their local housing needs, HUD has created PRO Housing Profiles for each awardee. Profiles are available here. For more information on the PRO Housing competition can be found at here.
