Admin Biden. announces $85 million for housing

The Biden administration announced Wednesday that it will provide $85 million in grants to help more than 20 cities lead the way in building new housing and preserving existing housing as part of its efforts to reduce housing costs. housing costs.

The funds, part of a program called Pathways to Removing Obstacles to Housing, will allow local jurisdictions to reduce barriers to building affordable housing, such as lack of infrastructure, difficult permitting processes and financing deficit for projects that result in unexpected cost overruns, administration officials said. told reporters on a call.

Milwaukee, for example, will use the grants to provide subsidies to builders to turn vacant land and abandoned buildings into affordable housing, Vice President Kamala Harris told reporters on the call.

Denver, for its part, will use its designated funds to provide loans to real estate developers to build infrastructure such as power lines on land where new housing can then be built, Harris added.

“Our announcement today aims to ensure that houses can be built probably in places where it was not possible to build houses before,” an official said.

“Many of you may have heard the phrase ‘not in my backyard’ or zoning rules or ‘there are too many rules that make it difficult to build housing and that make it more expensive to build housing.’ “, continued the manager. “Our announcement today aims to pave the way for housing construction. »

The $85 million comes from funds already allocated in the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s 2023 budget. Later this year, officials said, the administration will release an additional $100 million in the department’s 2024 budget to address the same problem.

Although housing construction often takes some time, officials said they expect the money to start having an impact as soon as late summer as some grants will help with the completion of projects already in progress. Recipients, however, have several years to spend their money, meaning improvements will be made “year over year over the next few years,” an official said.

“Rents are high and homeownership seems out of reach for too many families. One of the reasons for this is that for more than a decade, our housing supply has not kept up with the demand for housing,” Department of Housing and Urban Development Acting Secretary Adrianne Todman told reporters. “This shortage, along with our age and housing stock and rising rents, have exacerbated the pressure felt by families.

The country has continued to grapple with rising housing costs following the COVID-19 pandemic. The S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller Index released Tuesday shows that home prices across the country rose 6.3% in April from a year earlier. The Case-Shiller Composite Home Price Index for 20 cities shows home prices in March 2024 as 46% higher than in March 2020.

Monday in Minneapolis, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen announced $100 million over the next three years to support affordable housing funding.

Harris noted to reporters that President Joe Biden outlined a plan in his proposed budget to build more than two million homes and give middle-class first-time home buyers a tax credit for two years and up to $25,000 in first payment assistance. of second-generation home buyers. The administration is calling on Congress to pass the proposal.