2024 Pathways to Removing Obstacles Housing Grant
2024 Pathways to Removing Obstacles Housing Grant
The City of Austin Housing Department has been awarded $6.7 million through HUD's 2024 Pathways to Removing Obstacles (PRO) Housing Grant. This funding will build and enhance strategies to remove housing obstacles for our community. Community input was considered as part of this grant application, and this page was used to collect online comments. In addition to information about the grant requirements and what was asked for in the grant application, you'll also find a summary of questions, comments, and responses. We will continue updating this page as grant funding is used, so that you can follow the impact of the dollars.
Español | Tiếng Việt | العربية | 한국어 | 简体中文 | Français | हिंदी
Photo of an Austin neighborhood in Mueller
Approved Grant Activities
The spending of $6.7 million in PRO Housing Grant funding is planned over six years and will be invested into 3 primary activities.
$750,000: Update of the Strategic Housing Blueprint and Opportunity Mapping Index
The Strategic Housing Blueprint, adopted in 2017 with a 10-year timeframe, needs updates to reflect current challenges and priorities in affordable housing. Opportunity Mapping is a critical phase for identifying areas where affordable housing investments will have the most impact. Updating the Opportunity Index ensures that housing policies are aligned with economic opportunities, transit access, and equitable development.
$3 million: Investment in the Development and Preservation of Affordable Housing Near Planned Light Rail
Gap financing for the Ryan Drive affordable housing development (located at the intersection of the Red Line and the new Austin Light Rail Priority Extension) and future acquisitions in the South Congress area.
$1 million: Creation of New Zoning Tools to Unlock Missing-Middle and Urban Mixed-Use Development
New zoning tools will facilitate more diverse and attainable housing, enabling more housing opportunities for all.
Grant Timeline
Community Input
The public was invited to review a draft of the grant proposal and offer feedback from September 19 through October 10, 2024. Comments were collected through this page and at three public hearings. All comments and questions from the community, as well as a summary of input, can be found in the document linked below. We appreciate everyone who took the time and energy to help guide the application for this funding.
2024 PRO Housing Grant Public Comment Report
Click the image above to read the final application
Grant Background
Communities nationwide are suffering from a lack of affordable housing. Housing production is not meeting the increasing demand for accessible and available units in many urban and rural areas, particularly areas of high opportunity. Pathways to Removing Obstacles to Housing (PRO Housing) empowers communities that are actively taking steps to remove barriers to affordable housing and seeking to increase housing production and lower housing costs over the long term.
In 2024, HUD awarded the inaugural PRO Housing competitive grants to 21 winners to advance housing opportunities in communities across 19 states and the District of Columbia. HUD received over 175 applications from nearly every state and territory in the first-round competition. Austin applied for the first-round competition in 2023 but was not selected.
HUD issued the second PRO Housing NOFO, which appropriates $100 million for competitive grant funding for the identification and removal of barriers to affordable housing production and preservation. On October 15, 2024, Austin submitted an application requesting funding to further develop, evaluate, and implement housing policy plans, improve housing strategies, remove regulatory barriers, and facilitate affordable housing production and preservation.
Grant Goals & Objectives
- Elevate and enable promising practices dedicated to identifying and removing barriers to affordable housing production and preservation, while preventing displacement, including through rewarding jurisdictions that have enacted laws and regulations that will lead to more affordable housing production and preservation
- 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 better fulfill the Consolidated Plan’s requirement of identifying barriers to affordable housing and implementing solutions to address these barriers
- Affirmatively further fair housing by addressing and removing barriers that perpetuate segregation, inhibit access to well-resourced areas of opportunity for protected class groups and vulnerable populations, and concentrate affordable housing in under-resourced areas
- Facilitate collaboration and harness innovative approaches from jurisdictions, researchers, advocates, and stakeholders.
Additional Background
Public Hearing Meetings
Housing and Planning Committee of the Austin City Council
This hearing will be held during the October meeting of the
Housing and Planning Committee
City Hall, Council Chambers
301 W. 2nd St.
Community Development Commission
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.
Project Connect Community Advisory Committee
This hearing will be held during the October meeting of the
Project Connect Community Advisory Committee
Austin Transit Partnership Office Board Room
203 Colorado St. | Austin, Texas, 78701