General News

Minnesota Housing is holding a public hearing on the 2019 Action Plan on Feb. 21 at 4 pm at the Minnesota Department of Human Services, Room 1240, 444 Lafayette Road, St. Paul. Minnesota Housing, along with the Department of Employment and Economic Development and Department of Human Services, is developing the action plan which directs how the state will meet needs and priorities in 2019 and will be submitted to HUD to receive federal housing and community assistance funding.

The Los Angeles City Council has voted unanimously to set aside $120 million, 10 percent of the Proposition HHH supportive housing bond, for a pilot program that seeks strategies for expediting and containing the cost of permanent supportive housing development.

Members of the Tennessee legislature are pushing a bill that would help ease housing affordability challenges in urban areas. The Affordable Rental Property Act would give tax breaks to property owners offering rents below a certain affordability threshold. These tax breaks would be available in areas that currently lack sufficient affordable housing and are specifically targeted towards […]

A new National Opportunity Zones Ranking report ranks each of the designated Opportunity Zones based on its Smart Growth Potential as well as its Social Equity and Vulnerability Index score to create a “Smart Growth Potential” filter for investors to identify which Opportunity Zones should be prioritized for investment from a triple-bottom-line perspective that can deliver positive economic, environmental and social returns.

In London Breed’s first State of the City address as San Francisco’s mayor she announced plans for a charter amendment to make affordable and teacher housing development as-of-right in San Francisco. The charter amendment proposed for the November 2019 election, would allow 100 percent affordable and teacher housing proposals that comply with existing zoning laws to bypass the usual bureaucratic and appeals process that can result in long and costly delays.

The National Low Income Housing Coalition (NLIHC) released Opportunities to End Homelessness and Housing Poverty in the 116th Congress, a memo to incoming members of Congress on steps to address the lack of decent, accessible and affordable housing. The report calls on members of Congress to:

MassINC, the Massachusetts Smart Growth Alliance, and LOCUS are hosting a forum on Feb. 27, 2019 focused on stimulating transformative investment in Gateway Cities with the state’s Housing Development Incentive Program (HDIP) and federal Opportunity Zone Funds. The free event will run from 1-2:30 pm ET in the Massachusetts State House – Room 428 (24 […]

Oregon Housing and Community Services (OHCS) will hold a Housing Stability Council meeting will be on Friday, Feb. 1, 2019 from 9 am – 1 pm PT. Attendees can participate in person at OHCS (725 Summer St. NE, Salem, OR) in conference room 124 A/B or via phone: 1-877-273-4202; Participant Code: 4978330. The meeting materials […]

The California Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) released the Final Housing for a Healthy California (HHC) Program Guidelines. The Guidelines incorporate feedback from participants through public comment letters, and additional conversations and research during the public outreach period.

Enterprise Community Partners will put $250 million to work over five years to promote health as a top priority in the development and preservation of affordable homes and to elevate homes as an essential tool for improving resident and community health through its new Health Begins with Home initiative.

California Governor Gavin Newsom (D) announced that the state is taking first-of-its-kind legal action the City of Huntington Beach for willfully refusing to comply with state housing law, even after extensive attempts to offer partnership and support from the California Department of Housing and Community Development. 

The Opportunity Starts at Home campaign released a national policy agenda, “Within Reach.” The campaign makes the case that stronger federal action to ensure the most vulnerable low-income households have safe, decent, affordable homes is long-overdue. Over the past year, national organizations from the housing, education, health, civil rights, anti-hunger, anti-poverty and faith-based sectors have joined […]