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Writer's pictureVishal Doddanna

White House Initiative to Fix Housing Supply Issue Taking Shape

Updated: Oct 4

The Biden administration has announced $100 million in funding to reduce barriers to housing construction, part of the 2022 Housing Supply Action Plan. The grants aim to streamline permitting, reform land-use policies, and increase affordable housing. This effort, coupled with previous funding, hopes to mark the beginning of a permanent solution, addressing housing shortages at federal, state, and local levels.


White House Announces $100 Million Fund for Cities, States To Boost Housing Development


Program Aims To Streamline Permitting, Update Housing Policy Plans

Houses under construction in March in San Marcos, Texas. (Jordan Vonderhaar/Bloomberg via Getty Images)


By David Holtzman CoStar News August 13, 2024 | 4:30 P.M.

The Biden administration is making $100 million available to local and state governments in an effort to reduce barriers to housing construction, such as lengthy permitting times and restrictive zoning.


The funding announced Tuesday can be used to develop and carry out housing policy plans and to make it easier to produce or preserve affordable homes, the White House said in a statement. Grants will come from the same Department of Housing and Urban Development program that issued $85 million in June.


This is the president’s latest step to implement his 2022 Housing Supply Action Plan, which prioritized reforming land-use policies, expanding ways to finance homes and increasing owner occupancy in single-family homes. The U.S. Treasury also allocated $100 million in June for affordable housing.


“Building rental units and homes faster means lower costs for consumers: not only will more units get to the market faster, but increasing the speed of construction lowers building costs,” according to the White House statement.


The statement cited a new report by the President’s Council of Economic Advisers that blamed excessive permitting requirements for increasing housing shortages and lack of affordability. A key problem is that many permits are discretionary, the council said, meaning a local government’s review process can last for more than a year with no guarantee of approval.


The $85 million issued in June through the Pathways to Removing Obstacles to Housing program was awarded to 21 local and state entities. The largest single award, $6.7 million, went to Los Angeles County to build wastewater and transportation infrastructure to support housing development, HUD said in a fact sheet about the funding. The next-largest award was $6.6 million to Hawaii for infrastructure and housing.


As part of Tuesday’s announcement, the White House said it would reform a risk-sharing program for multifamily housing development to give state and local housing finance agencies more protection from volatile interest rates.


In addition, the administration said it would streamline requirements for federal loans for development near transit, including projects that convert commercial buildings to housing.


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