The Biden-Harris administration has rolled out a series of significant measures aimed at addressing the nation’s housing crisis. This latest effort includes a $100 million investment in community grants, aimed at accelerating the construction of affordable housing and tackling the persistent affordability issues facing renters and homebuyers.

These newly introduced initiatives, revealed on Tuesday, mark the administration’s first major policy action on housing since President Joe Biden decided not to run in the 2024 presidential race, leaving Vice President Kamala Harris as the Democratic nominee. This move comes on the heels of the broader “Biden-Harris Housing Plan,” which sets ambitious goals to support the construction of two million new housing units across the United States.

Among the new measures are grants aimed at identifying and removing barriers to the production and preservation of affordable housing. In addition, changes to existing rules are expected to provide greater predictability in interest rates for state and local housing finance agencies. The administration is also pushing for streamlined permitting requirements at both the state and local levels, which is anticipated to ease the process for developers and speed up housing production.

The administration’s focus on housing is a direct response to the ongoing affordability crisis that has left many Americans struggling to find suitable housing. According to Freddie Mac, the country faces a significant shortfall, with an estimated need for at least 1.5 million additional homes to alleviate the severe shortage that has driven up prices and rents to unprecedented levels.

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New Policies Set to Boost Housing Supply and Curb Rising Costs

A White House statement emphasized the centrality of housing in the administration’s economic agenda, noting that “President Biden and Vice President Harris have prioritized the construction of more homes as a key strategy to lower rents and make homeownership more accessible.”

This announcement arrives at a critical juncture, as housing affordability remains a pressing issue in the 2024 presidential campaign. The measures introduced by the administration are seen as a proactive step toward addressing the chronic undersupply of both market-rate and affordable housing, a problem that has been exacerbated by regulatory hurdles and economic challenges.

Realtor.com’s senior economist, Ralph McLaughlin, expressed optimism about the administration’s focus on supply-side solutions. “As a housing economist, it’s encouraging to see ongoing policy announcements that target the root causes of our current housing troubles—namely, the chronic undersupply of housing,” McLaughlin said. He added that these policies are crucial in addressing the long-standing issues that have plagued the housing market.

Central to the administration’s plan is the allocation of $100 million in new competitive grant funding through the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) Pathways to Removing Obstacles to Housing (PRO Housing) program. This funding is intended to help communities across the nation eliminate barriers to local housing production, a critical step in increasing the supply of affordable homes.

HUD Acting Secretary Adrianne Todman highlighted the urgency of this initiative, stating, “This funding is designed to cut through red tape and accelerate the construction of more homes, particularly affordable homes, because the need for housing assistance is immediate and urgent.”

This new round of funding builds on the $85 million in PRO Housing grants that were awarded in the previous month across 19 states and Washington, DC. These earlier grants are being utilized to update state and local housing plans, revise land use policies, and streamline the permitting process, among other critical actions aimed at boosting housing construction.

In addition to the grant funding, the administration announced a joint initiative between HUD and the Treasury Department designed to provide greater interest rate certainty for state and local agencies involved in affordable housing projects. This initiative introduces a mechanism known as an interest rate “collar,” which sets a floor and a cap on the benchmark Treasury rate used to calculate the all-in rate for these projects.

U.S. Deputy Secretary of the Treasury Wally Adeyemo explained that this collar initiative would “help reduce the cost to construct more affordable housing, which is desperately needed in communities across the country.”

The White House also unveiled several proposals aimed at accelerating certain construction projects. These include measures to expedite historic preservation reviews for federal housing projects and initiatives to speed up the permitting process at the state and local levels, which are often bottlenecks in the development process.

Among the newly announced measures, McLaughlin pointed to two that stand out as particularly impactful: the administration’s emphasis on expediting the approval process for housing permits and the effort to stabilize interest rates for new construction projects. “These initiatives will help the market respond more effectively to new demand by reducing the time and uncertainty involved in bringing new housing projects online,” he noted. “This is a much-needed approach to addressing the supply-demand imbalance that has been driving up housing costs.”

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Harris vs. Trump: The Battle Over America’s Housing Future in 2024

As Vice President Harris steps into the role of Democratic nominee, her approach to housing policy will be closely watched. Although she has yet to release detailed policy proposals on housing, her early campaign rhetoric suggests that she will continue to champion the themes of Biden’s housing agenda. At a recent campaign rally, Harris vowed to “take on corporate landlords and cap unfair rent increases,” signaling her commitment to tackling housing affordability from multiple angles.

This pledge aligns with Biden’s earlier campaign promise to advocate for federal legislation that would cap annual rent increases by large landlords at 5% for existing properties. It is clear that housing affordability will remain a central issue in the upcoming election, with Harris likely to focus on measures that protect renters and expand affordable housing options.

On the other side of the political spectrum, former President Donald Trump has outlined a different approach to lowering housing costs. His proposals include halting unlawful immigration, reducing regulatory burdens, and opening select federal lands for new development—strategies he argues will help increase the housing supply and reduce costs.

As the 2024 race heats up, the contrasting approaches to housing policy between the Biden-Harris administration and its opponents underscore the importance of this issue to American voters. With affordability at near-record lows, the administration’s recent announcements represent a critical effort to address one of the most pressing economic challenges facing the nation today.

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