Note: Last week, the Trump budget office issued and then rescinded a memo freezing spending on federal loans and grants, sparking widespread confusion and legal challenges across the country. The LeSar team is monitoring this potential impact on PRO Housing and other Federal grants.
In January 2025, the Biden-Harris administration awarded $100M in HUD Pathways to Removing Obstacles to Housing (PRO Housing) grants to 18 jurisdictions across 15 states, building upon $85M awarded during the first round of this program. The HUD PRO Housing grants support communities that are actively taking steps to remove barriers to affordable housing, including barriers caused by outdated zoning, land use policies or regulations, lack of neighborhood amenities, and challenges to preserving existing housing stock. Of the 18 jurisdictions awarded, three were in California: the City and County of San Francisco ($7M), the City of Oakland ($7M), and the County of Sacramento ($2.7M).
The City and County of San Francisco’s $7M award will go towards improving permitting processing, building affordable housing units, removing land use and development barriers, and expanding housing typologies as a means of advancing its 2023 comprehensive roadmap for preserving, protecting, and producing housing. Oakland’s $7M award will be used to create a new local program, the Rapid Response Homeless Housing Program, as the city identified Permanent Supportive Housing (PSH) as a top investment priority in its Strategic Plan. Lastly, the County of Sacramento’s $2.7M award will support affordable housing plans for two commercial corridors, land use policy updates, and adaptive reuse permitting.
Other notable awardees include the City of Austin, TX ($6.7M); the City of Evanston ($7M), IL; the City of Portland, OR ($7M); the Louisville-Jefferson County Metro Government ($7M), KY; the Maryland Department of Housing and Community Development ($6.9M), and the State of Montana Department of Commerce ($7M).
The LeSar portfolio of firms can support interested applicants through grant writing, application competitiveness, and award analysis to ensure a successful application that aligns funding with local needs. Please reach out to Jacqueline Woo, California Legislative Analysis Manager, at [email protected], for more information.
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