FY24 Pathways to Removing Obstacles to Housing (PRO Housing)
Purpose
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. Pathways to Removing Obstacles to Housing (PRO Housing) empowers communities that are actively taking steps to remove barriers to affordable housing and seeking to increase housing production and lower housing costs over the long term. Barriers to affordable housing may take the form of restrictive zoning designations, land use policies, or regulations; discretionary, costly or prolonged procedures; deteriorating or inadequate infrastructure; lack of neighborhood amenities; neighborhood opposition to new or affordable housing; or challenges to preserving existing housing stock such as increasing threats from natural hazards, redevelopment that reduces the number of affordable units, displacement pressures, or expiration of affordability requirements.
Across the United States, regulatory and other barriers have made it difficult to produce, preserve, and access affordable housing. Constrained supply drives up housing costs and reduces affordability. According to American Community Survey estimates in 2021, 39.3 million households (20.9 million renters and 18.4 million homeowners) have been classified as “cost-burdened,” spending more than 30 percent of their income on housing. Cost burden is even greater for underserved populations. Black families face affordability challenges as homeowners and renters more than any other racial or ethnic group, spending between 30 to 50 percent of their income on housing. In Puerto Rico, cost-burdened households face severe affordability challenges, spending between 50 to 90 percent of their income on housing. Limited access to housing has long-term effects on access to opportunity and ability to build generational wealth, especially for underserved communities of color and low-income people. Affordability challenges and the lack of affordable housing supply further increase eviction pressures and likelihood of homelessness for low-income people.
In 2024, HUD awarded the inaugural PRO Housing competitive grants to 21 winners to advance housing opportunities in communities across 19 states and the District of Columbia. The first-round competition was greatly oversubscribed. For every dollar made available for fiscal year 2023, thirteen dollars were requested. HUD received over 150 applications from nearly every state and territory. The considerable interest in this first-of-its-kind funding is an indication of the need for resources for local communities to address barriers to housing production and preservation across the country. The applicants and winners represent rural, suburban, and urban communities ranging from under 5,000 residents to millions. While communities have seen historic levels of federal investments in housing and infrastructure, there is still a need to address the barriers that inhibit or slow housing production. Barriers such as high cost of land, lack of available units, inadequate infrastructure, gaps in financing, restrictive zoning, risks of displacement, expiring affordability, increased threats from extreme weather, and an aging housing stock were common themes throughout the initial applications. PRO Housing funding enables awardees to address those barriers through planning, infrastructure, development, and preservation actions to further local housing goals.
HUD is issuing this second PRO Housing NOFO under the authority of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2024 (Public Law 118-42, approved March 9, 2024) (Appropriations Act), which appropriates $100 million for competitive grant funding for the identification and removal of barriers to affordable housing production and preservation. Congress has directed HUD to undertake a competition using the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) statutory and regulatory framework. Under this NOFO, HUD will provide PRO Housing grants to identify and remove barriers to affordable housing production and preservation. Grantees may use awards to further develop, evaluate, and implement housing policy plans, improve housing strategies, and facilitate affordable housing production and preservation. Eligible applicants are State and local governments, metropolitan planning organizations (MPOs), and multijurisdictional entities.
HUD has six goals for this competition:
- Fairly and effectively award the PRO Housing grant funding;
- Elevate and enable promising practices dedicated to identifying and removing barriers to affordable housing production and preservation, while preventing displacement, including through rewarding jurisdictions that have enacted laws and regulations that will lead to more affordable housing production and preservation;
- Institutionalize state and local analysis and implementation of effective, equitable, and resilient approaches to affordable housing production and preservation;
- Provide technical assistance to help communities better fulfill the Consolidated Plan’s requirement of identifying barriers to affordable housing and implementing solutions to address these barriers;
- Affirmatively further fair housing by addressing and removing barriers that perpetuate segregation, inhibit access to well-resourced areas of opportunity for protected class groups and vulnerable populations, and concentrate affordable housing in under-resourced areas; and
- Facilitate collaboration and harness innovative approaches from jurisdictions, researchers, advocates, and stakeholders.
Funding of approximately $100,064,100 is available through this NOFO. HUD expects to make approximately 30 awards from the funds available under this NOFO.
Program Office: Office of Community Planning and Development
Funding Opportunity Title: FY24 Pathways to Removing Obstacles to Housing (PRO Housing)
Funding Opportunity Number: FR-6800-N-98
Assistance Listing Number: 14.023
OMB Approval Number: 2506-0220
Opening Date: August 13, 2024
Deadline Date: October 15, 2024