White House Unveils Plan to Boost Office-to-Residential Conversions

• October 27th

by UrbanTurf Staff

On Friday, The White House launched a plan aimed at converting vacant commercial properties around the country into housing. 

A number of government departments including Housing and Urban Development, Department of Transportation and the General Services Administration and the Office of Management and Budget are part of the plan to bring about these conversions. 

“With a shortage of millions of homes nationwide, we need to utilize every resource at our disposal to increase housing supply, which in turn, given the high demand, will help with rent levels and purchase costs,” HUD deputy secretary Adrianne Todman said during a press briefing.

The new initiatives include:

• The Department of Transportation issuing guidance on how nearly $35 billion in funds can be accessed for new construction and office conversions at or near transportation centers. 
• The Commercial to Residential Federal Resources Guidebook will have a series of programs that will provide low-interest loans, grants and tax incentives in order to facilitate conversions. 
• The Department of Housing and Urban Development will offer billions in dollars in funding for conversions under the Community Development Block Grants program.
• The General Services Administration will expand its Good Neighbor Program to promote the sale of surplus federal properties that buyers could potentially redevelop for residential use.

For the full details of the initiative, click here. 

This article originally published at https://dc.urbanturf.com/articles/blog/white_house_unveils_office-to-residential_plan/21626.