Today, the White House issued a press release announcing Housing Supply Action Plan designed to ease the burden of housing costs over time, by boosting the supply of quality housing in every community. The plan includes “legislative and administrative actions that will help close America’s housing supply shortfall in 5 years, starting with the creation and preservation of hundreds of thousands of affordable housing units in the next three years.”
Under the Plan, the Administration will:
- Reward jurisdictions that have reformed zoning and land-use policies
- Deploy new financing mechanisms to build and preserve more housing where financing gaps currently exist
- Expand and improve existing forms of federal financing
- Ensure that more government-owned supply of homes and other housing goes to owners who will live in them
- Work with the private sector to address supply chain challenges and improve building techniques
The Administration will take the following immediate steps:
- Leveraging transportation funding from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL).
- Integrating affordable housing into DOT Programs.
- Including land use within the U.S. Economic Development Administration’s (EDA) investment priorities.
- Supporting production and availability of manufactured housing.
- Scaling Up ADUs and piloting ADU and home renovation financing tools.
- Boosting rural single-family construction.
- Strengthening Enterprise financing for multifamily development and rehabilitation.
- Leveraging American Rescue Plan funds for investments in affordable housing.
- Finalizing the LIHTC “Income Averaging” proposed rule.
- Continuing to drive housing production through the Federal Financing Bank’s Risk Sharing Program.
- Improving the alignment of federal funds to reduce transaction costs and duplications, and accelerate development.
- Supporting the construction of more than 8,000 rural multi-family housing units.
- Disposing of federal properties to create affordable housing for people experiencing homelessness.
- Supporting new and existing affordable housing in Indian Country.
- Directing supply to owner-occupants and mission-driven entities instead of large investors.
- Encouraging use of CDBG for local acquisition and local sales to owner-occupants and mission-driven entities.
- Partnering with the private sector to address supply chain disruptions for building materials.
- Promoting modular, panelized, and manufactured housing – and construction R&D.
These actions build on the strategies that the Administration has proposed and continues to call on Congress to pass:
- Unlocking Possibilities Program.
- Housing Supply Fund grants to reduce affordable housing barriers.
- Provide tax credits to build and rehabilitate 125,000 homes for low- and middle-income homebuyers.
- Provide Housing Supply Fund financing for affordable housing production to develop 500,000 units of housing for low- and moderate-income renters and homebuyers.
- Financing more than 800,000 affordable rental units by expanding and strengthening the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit.
- Expanding access to federal subsidies for the construction or rehabilitation of rental homes affordable to low and extremely low income households.
- Addressing longstanding public housing capital needs.
- Preserving more than 10,000 multifamily rental housing units in urban and rural America.
- Recruiting more workers into good-paying construction jobs.
To view the full Press Release, please click here