PREVIEW Pathways to Removing Obstacles to Housing (Pro Housing)
HUD is making this preview available to allow interested applicants to review the preview of the NOFO, submit questions, and prepare applications. HUD will not accept applications during the preview period. However, during this preview, interested applicants may submit questions on the NOFO preview to the following email address: CDBG-PROHousing@HUD.gov. HUD intends to publish the NOFO on grants.gov and allow submission of applications September 2023. This NOFO preview is subject to change. While HUD does not intend to make substantive changes at this point, applicants should consider the NOFO published on Grants.gov to be the official version.
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 for families over the long term.
Barriers to affordable housing can be caused by zoning decisions, 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 such as increasing threats from natural hazards, redevelopment that reduces the number of affordable units, 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 this reduces affordability over the long term. 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. When broken down by race, Black families face affordability challenges as homeowners and renters more than any other race/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.
HUD is issuing this NOFO under the authority of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2023 (Public Law 117-328, approved December 29, 2022) (Appropriations Act), which appropriates $85 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 local and state governments, metropolitan planning organizations (MPOs), and multijurisdictional entities.
Funding of approximately $85,00,000 is available through this NOFO. Expected number of awards 20.
Program Office: Office of Community Planning and Development
Funding Opportunity Title: Pathways to Removing Obstacles to Housing (PRO Housing)
Funding Opportunity Number: FR-6700-N-98
Assistance Listing Number: 14.023
OMB Approval Number: XXXX-XXXX
Preview Date: July 27, 2023
Deadline Date: TBD
Agency Contact: Questions regarding specific program requirements for this NOFO should be directed to:CDBG-PROHousing@HUD.gov.