Pathways to Removing Obstacles Housing Grant
Pathways to Removing Obstacles Housing Grant
The City of Austin Housing Department is applying for $10 million through HUD's 2023 Pathways to Removing Obstacles (PRO) Housing Grant. This funding will build and enhance strategies to remove housing obstacles for our community. As part of this grant application, we are seeking community input. On this page you'll find information about the grant requirements and what we plan to ask for in the grant application, as well as how to be involved.
Guadalupe Saldana Net-Zero Duplexes. Photo courtesy: Guadalupe Neighborhood Development Corporation.
Grant Background
The HUD Pathways to Removing Obstacles to Housing (PRO Housing) funding opportunity will provide $85 million in funding for communities across the country to identify and remove barriers to affordable housing production and preservation. Congress has directed HUD to undertake a competition using the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) statutory and regulatory framework.
Eligible applicants include local and state governments, metropolitan planning organizations (MPOs), and multijurisdictional entities. *Note priority will be given to applicants who demonstrate a commitment to and progress toward overcoming local barriers to affordable housing and have an acute demand for affordable housing (Austin qualifies as a priority geography)
Grant Goals & Objectives
- Elevate and enable promising practices for identifying and removing barriers to affordable housing production and preservation, while preventing displacement.
- Institutionalize state and local analysis and implementation of effective, equitable, and resilient approaches to affordable housing production and preservation.
- Provide technical assistance to help communities fulfill the Consolidated Plan’s requirement of identifying barriers to affordable housing and to implement solutions.
- Facilitate collaboration and harness innovative approaches from jurisdictions, researchers, advocates, and stakeholders to further the national conversation on affordable housing.
- Affirmatively further fair housing by addressing and removing barriers that perpetuate segregation, inhibit access to areas of opportunity for protected class groups and vulnerable populations, and concentrate affordable housing in underresourced areas
Proposed Activities
- Update Austin's Strategic Housing Blueprint, in alignment with the Imagine Austin Comprehensive Plan
- Reconfigure Austin's Density Bonus Incentive Programs, including SMART Housing Program
- Research and Deploy Opportunity Mapping
- Update Austin's Affordable Housing Online Search Tool (AHOST)
- Assist local community development financial institution (CDFI) to carry out financing strategies that prioritize small, community-based affordable housing developers
* Read the full draft of the grant application here *
Share Your Input
Your input is important. Please let us know how you think this funding could remove obstacles our community faces. Please submit comments by October 25, 2023.
Grant Timeline
Public Hearing Meeting
Public Hearing for PRO Housing Grant application
This hearing will be held during the October meeting of the Austin Community Development Commission
City Hall
Board and Commission Room 1101
301 W. 2nd St.
Austin, TX 78701