HUD PRO Housing Grants

Seeking to remove barriers to creating and preserving affordable housing, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development is currently weighing applications for $100 million in grant funding to communities throughout the nation for its second round of PRO Housing, Pathways to Removing Obstacles to Housing, grant program.

“Communities nationwide are suffering from a lack of affordable housing, and housing production is not meeting the increasing demand for accessible and available units in many urban and rural areas, particularly areas of high opportunity,” a HUD press release on the program states. “Pathways to Removing Obstacles to Housing (PRO Housing) supports communities who are actively taking steps to remove barriers to affordable housing.”

The grants may be used to address such barriers to affordable housing as outdated zoning, land use policies or regulations; inefficient procedures; gaps in available resources for development; deteriorating or inadequate infrastructure; lack of neighborhood amenities; or challenges to preserving existing housing stock. The grants are available to state and local governments, metropolitan planning organizations and multijurisdictional entities.

The Round 2 deadline for the applications for the grant funds was October 15 but was extended to October 22 for counties in areas that were deemed federal disaster zones between September 1 to October 15 of this year. HUD has not announced whether there will be a Round 3 of funding.

In June, HUD announced the 21 recipients of the inaugural Round 1 of $85 million in PRO Housing grants given to communities throughout the nation. The communities ranged from the Metropolitan Government of Nashville and Davidson County, the Metropolitan Area Planning Council of Massachusetts, the Metropolitan Council of the Twin Cities of Minnesota, the states of Hawaii and Rhode Island. City awardees include Milwaukee, WI; Bend, OR; and Iowa City, IA.

“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,” a HUD press release on the winners stated. “Successful applicants demonstrated a commitment to eliminating barriers to housing and progress toward creating more housing forward communities.”

The Metropolitan Council (Met Council) of the Twin Cities of Minnesota plans to use its $4 million in awarded funds to boost capacity to address planning and policy needs primarily within Hennepin and Ramsey counties. Met Council will also use the funds to devise an initiative to develop housing for households earning less than 30 percent of area median income (AMI).

“We need to create the conditions that allow developers to build affordable housing, and to make the most of the funding available,” says Sarah Berke, senior manager for Housing and Livable Communities in the Metropolitan Council’s Community Development division. “Updating outdated land use ordinances and developing new housing policies can take staff time and resources that many cities in our region don’t have. The HUD program allows us to give grants and guidance to cities that need to update these policies, and to help cities learn from each other about what works.” 

In Bend, OR, city leaders plan to use their $5 million grant over five years to, among other things: assess planning, programs and policies that impact housing production and availability in Bend;  support the city’s development of its Housing Production Strategy with equity and accessibility at the forefront;  increase housing production through the establishment of a $4 million revolving loan fund, funding future land acquisition and construction projects; expand or establish various incentives and subsidies to support affordable housing development and homebuyer assistance; and create processes to streamline and simplify housing production, according to city leaders. 

“The City of Bend has a long history of facilitating the construction of affordable housing, and recent exponential growth necessitates bold solutions to address a historical underproduction of housing,” Mellissa Kamanya, the City of Bend’s affordable housing coordinator, says. “The PRO Housing grant will build upon the city’s extensive body of work, unlocking innovative processes and production to make a widespread impact in the affordable housing community.”

In Iowa City, leaders plan to use the $3,752,000 award to address the city’s 18,672 people living in poverty and the 61 percent of renters and 22 percent of homeowners with a mortgage who spend more than 30 percent of their income on housing.

“Iowa City is thrilled to partner with HUD to help us meet our affordable housing needs and address existing barriers…,” Tracy Hightshoe, Iowa City neighborhood & development services director says. “Due to the complexity of affordable housing issues, Iowa City plans to use the funds to address regulatory barriers to housing, as well as limited local development capacity. Specifically, the city will use funds to update its comprehensive plan and review the city’s parking standards while developing the city’s capacity to develop and operate income-restricted housing sustainably and effectively.”

The competitive process for the funds uses the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) statutory and regulatory framework.

More information on the program is found at Pathways to Removing Obstacles to Housing (PRO Housing)  | HUD.gov / U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).

More information on the Round 1 award recipients is here.