By David Lawder
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Biden administration on Wednesday announced the allocation of $85 million in housing funds to 21 state and local governments for a new program aimed at helping them remove barriers to developing and preserving more affordable housing.
Vice President Kamala Harris and Department of Housing and Urban Development Acting Secretary Adrianne Todman said the awards from HUD’s initial Pathways to Removal Obstacles (PRO) to Housing program would help update state and local housing plans, revising land use policies and streamlining the permitting process for new developments.
HUD’s PRO Housing program was created in the fiscal 2023 budget bill, and the awards were timed this week with an administration push to demonstrate that President Joe Biden is taking action to address high housing costs, which are a major concern for younger voters have become.
A chronic housing shortage continues to drive up rental prices and persistent consumer price inflation, contributing to a slowdown in Federal Reserve interest rate cuts.
“This investment is part of a broader strategy to lower rents and help more Americans buy homes,” Harris told reporters in announcing the subsidies. “President Biden and I have proposed a national housing plan to build 2 million affordable homes.”
On Tuesday, US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen announced that $100 million in COVID-era community lending revenue would be redirected to a new affordable housing finance fund.
The awards include a host of U.S. cities, including $6.7 million for Los Angeles County, $6.6 million for the State of Hawaii and $2.5 million for Ketchum, Idaho.
Harris said a $2.1 million grant to Milwaukee would help the city provide grants to builders to help them more easily develop vacant lots and abandoned buildings. A $4.5 million grant to Denver would help provide low-cost loans to housing developers to make utility connections.
More than 175 communities had applied for the money, and Harris said the Biden administration will release another $100 million in grants later this summer. Biden has requested another $100 million as part of his proposed budget for the 2025 fiscal year, which begins Oct. 1.
Harris and Yellen also called on Congress this week to approve Biden’s proposed $10,000 tax credit for first-time homebuyers and a $25,000 equity grant for first-generation homebuyers in disadvantaged families. The proposals have languished in the Republican-controlled House of Representatives.
(Reporting by David Lawder; Editing by Miral Fahmy)
