First Round of Federal PRO Housing Awards Announced

The first round of Federal Pathways to Removing Obstacles to Housing (PRO Housing) grant awards was released in late June; these grants aim to identify and remove barriers to affordable housing production and preservation. The White House and HUD announced 21 awards totaling nearly $85M for the first round of funding – applications were submitted from more than 175 communities across 47 states and territories. The second round of the competition will open in the late summer of 2024 for $100M in additional funding.

For the 2023 Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO), eligible applicants included states and local governments, municipal planning organizations (MPOs), and multijurisdictional entities for awards of $1 – $10M. Eligible uses included planning, development, infrastructure, and preservation activities that identify and remove barriers to affordable housing production and preservation.

Key information about awardees included:

• Los Angeles County, CA, and the State of Hawaii received the largest award, at $6.7M and $6.6M, respectively
• Arcata, CA, and Milwaukee, WI, received the smallest awards, at $1M and $2.1M, respectively.
• Within California, the winners included:
  • Los Angeles County, CA ($6.6M)
  • Metropolitan Transportation Commission (Bay Area), CA ($5.5M)
  • Anaheim, CA ($3.5M)
  • Arcata, CA ($1M)
• Awards averaged $4M per awardee.

The winners’ proposed activities focused on three key themes:

• Land use, environmental streamlining, and updates: New York, NY, received funding to update and streamline environmental review and neighborhood plan updates, while Los Angeles County, CA, aims to conduct assessments to understand needs and identify opportunities to improve land use policies and enable the construction of “missing middle” typologies.
• Housing production, including new housing funds: The Bay Area’s Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC) will use the funding to launch its Priority Sites Catalyst Project to fund housing-supportive infrastructure, while Anaheim, CA, will create the Anaheim Housing Trust to offer flexible funding to support affordable housing development.
• Technical assistance and capacity building: MTC will provide regionwide TA through its Priority Sites Program to remove barriers to advancing sites, while the Metropolitan Washington COG (DC, VA, MD) will develop an adaptive reuse best practices guidebook, tools to support the construction of various housing typologies, and calculators to inform policies and practices that impact housing production.

A smaller number of awardees included activities focused on housing preservation and climate/resiliency, including Philadelphia, PA’s comprehensive action plan to preserve existing affordable housing and create tools to support this goal and Denver, CO’s environmental remediation loan fund.

The second round of the competition will open in the summer of 2024 for $100M in additional funding. 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.