General News

The National Council of State Housing Agencies (NCSHA) and the Economic Innovation Group (EIG) published three case studies of developments that incorporate Opportunity Zone investment to create new affordable homes and support community revitalization efforts in Ohio, Maryland and Florida. These are the first in a new series of Opportunity Zone Development Profiles that detail project financing, community socioeconomic data and projected economic impact. The profiles demonstrate how Opportunity Zone investments are being utilized to develop affordable homes for very-low- to moderate-income households, and how that investment is furthering community revitalization efforts and enhancing positive community impact.

Governor Ron DeSantis (R-FL) announced full funding for affordable and workforce housing programs. Unveiled in his Bolder, Brighter, Better Future Budget, the Governor recommends providing $387 million to the affordable housing trust funds – $119.8 million for the State Apartment Incentive Loan (SAIL) program and $267.2 million for the State Housing Initiative Partnership (SHIP) program.

HUD User published a case study on the Riverport Family Scholar House, one part of a larger multi-generational housing development. Riverport provides affordable housing and a network of support services to single parents and foster care alumni who are pursuing post-secondary education in Louisville, KY. Residents receive access to free or heavily subsidized child care, […]

Democratic presidential hopeful Mayor Pete Buttigieg (South Bend, IN) released An Economic Agenda for American Families which includes spending $430 billion on affordable housing measures. “He will enable more than 2 million more units of affordable housing to be built or restored where it is needed most, using billions of dollars of investments in the Housing Trust Fund, Capital Magnet Fund, HOME and CDBG funds, and the Low Income Housing Tax Credit.”

Voters in multiple jurisdictions across the country approved housing- and mitigation-related ballot measures. Voters in Durham, NC approved a $95 million affordable housing bond by a 76 to 24 percent margin. The measure will be paired with $65 million in federal and local funding over the next five years to support affordable housing development and […]

Daniel McCue with the Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies argues in a new blog post that even the largest cities will need help tackling housing affordability.

Apple recently announced a $2.5 billion plan to help address the housing availability and affordability crisis in California. The funding commitment to California is expected to take approximately two years to be fully utilized depending on the availability of projects. Capital returned to Apple will be reinvested in future projects over the next five years.

Facebook announced a $1 billion commitment over the next decade to help address the affordable housing crisis in California, which will go toward creating up to 20,000 new housing units to help essential workers such as teachers, nurses and first responders live closer to the communities that rely on them.

The MIT Sloan School of Management recently announced the appointment of Edward L. Golding as executive director and senior lecturer at the MIT Golub Center for Finance and Policy (GCFP). Golding, a former head of the Federal Housing Administration, will help lead the GCFP in its mission to support governments in their role as financial […]

HUD released an evaluation of its Rental Assistance Demonstration (RAD), which finds significant evidence that RAD is stimulating billions of dollars in capital investment, improving living conditions for low-income residents and enhancing the financial health of these critical affordable housing resources. The report says that the 956 RAD conversions studied leveraged $9.66 for every dollar provided through HUD’s public housing programs, that all rehabilitation projects covered their rehabilitation needs, that there is an 87 percent post-conversion decrease in unscheduled capital needs for completed RAD properties and that tenants were pleased with the improvement.

A new working paper from Jacob Cosman and Luis Quintero of the Carey Business School at Johns Hopkins University cites concentration of developers as a reason for the dearth of affordable housing. From 2006 to 2015, the number of builders who controlled 90 percent of a typical market dropped by a quarter, which has cost the country approximately 150,000 additional homes a year and decreased the annual value of housing production nationwide by $106 billion — all else being equal.

A new report in Health Affairs examines whether expansions of Medicaid can prevent evictions from occurring. Early Medicaid expansion in California was associated with a reduction in the number of evictions, with 24.5 fewer evictions per month in each county from a pre-expansion average of 224.7.