White House Introduces New Plan to Increase Housing Supply, Ease Rental Costs

The White House recently announced a Housing Supply Action Plan meant to ease restrictive and costly land use and zoning rules, expand financing for energy efficient housing, and promote commercial-to-residential conversion opportunities as part of a wider effort to boost housing supply and ease financial burdens for U.S. renters. As part of the plan, the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) is introducing an $85 million federal program called the Pathways to Removing Obstacles to Housing, which will award grants of up to $10 million to jurisdictions that are working to remove barriers to housing production, NAHB reports.

The administration will provide new financing for affordable, energy efficient housing and clean energy investments as well as funds to increase housing supply through zoning reform.

Funding can be used to allow for higher-density zoning and rezoning for multifamily and mixed-use housing, streamlining affordable housing development, and reducing requirements related to parking and other land use restrictions. 

HUD also announced that it will allow larger loans to participate in the agency’s Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) Pilot Program, which increases the number of apartment sites eligible for a program that streamlines financing. HUD also updated guidelines to allow public housing authorities (PHAs) to more easily use housing vouchers and mixed-finance transactions to create or preserve housing.

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