The White House Unveils Ambitious Housing Production Plan

• May 16th 2022

by UrbanTurf Staff

The White House unveiled an ambitious plan on Monday to boost housing supply in the country.

The Housing Supply Action Plan aims to close the affordable housing gap and “ease the burden of housing costs” amid increasing housing prices in the country. Moody's Analytics estimates that the housing shortfall is approximately 1.5 million units, nationwide. 

The plan outlines a number of steps to increase supply in the coming years including:

• Expanding and improving financing for affordable multifamily development and preservation, including working with Fannie Mae to invest in Construction to Permanent loans; promoting the use of state, local, and Tribal government COVID-19 recovery funds to expand affordable housing supply; and reforms to the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) and the HOME Investment Partnerships Program (HOME). 
• Ensuring that more government-owned foreclosed homes go to owner-occupants or non-profits who will rehab them, rather than institutional investors. 
• Rewarding jurisdictions that have reformed zoning and land-use policies with higher scores in certain federal grant processes. 
• Expanding federal financing of manufactured housing, accessory dwelling units (ADUs), 2-4 unit properties, and smaller multifamily buildings. 

"The Plan will help renters who are struggling with high rental costs, with a particular focus on building and preserving rental housing for low- and moderate-income families," The White House said in a statement. "The Plan’s policies to boost supply are an important element of bringing homeownership within reach for Americans who, today, cannot find an affordable home because there are too few homes for sale in their communities."

This article originally published at https://dc.urbanturf.com/articles/blog/the-white-houses-plan-to-boost-housing-supply/19650.