内容来源：白宫官网，原文链接见文末
翻译整理：石曼卿，陈杰
*机器翻译未经详细复检，仅供参考
The $85 million in PRO Housing funds announced today will empower communities nationwide to lower housing costs and boost housing supply through locally-led planning, infrastructure, development, and preservation activities in 21 communities.
WASHINGTON – Today, Vice President Harris announced the recipients of new grants under the Pathways to Removing Obstacles to Housing (PRO Housing) grant competition with the goal of building more housing, and lowering housing and rental costs for American families. The President and the Vice President know that the cost of housing is too high. That’s why the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) created PRO Housing a first-of-its-kind program that provides funding to communities actively addressing barriers to building new units. Funding will support updates to state and local housing plans, land use policies, permitting processes, and other actions aimed at building and preserving more affordable housing.
We are starting to see some progress. More housing units are under construction during this Administration than at any time in the last 50 years, rents have fallen over the last year in many places, and the homeownership rate is higher now than before the pandemic. But rent is still too high, and Americans who want to buy a home still have difficulty finding one they can afford. That is why President Biden and Vice President Harris are committed to lower housing costs, including by increasing housing supply by building and preserving more homes. In the State of the Union, President Biden called on Congress to pass his and Vice President Harris’s plan to build two million additional homes, increase rental assistance, and help first-time and first-generation homebuyers.
Recognizing that every community is different, the grants announced today are critical to breaking down local barriers that stand in the way of housing development and lower costs. Common barriers to housing identified in the PRO Housing applications include the high cost of land and development, underutilized vacant land and property, aging housing stock, inadequate infrastructure, displacement pressures, risks of extreme weather or environment hazards, and outdated land-use and permitting policies and processes.
The demand for these awards was substantial, with requests exceeding $13 for every $1 available. Applications came from more than 175 communities across 47 states and territories, representing diverse demographics and geographic settings. The Biden-Harris Administration will also release an additional $100 million in PRO Housing funding later this summer.
The awards announced today build upon the historic levels of funding made available for housing, infrastructure, and community resilience by the Biden-Harris Administration. The President’s FY25 Budget proposes a historic investment of more than $258 billion in housing, including a $20 billion Innovation Fund for Housing Expansion, which would provide critical support to further eliminate barriers to housing, spur development, and encourage innovative housing solutions. The President’s FY25 Budget also proposes an additional $100 million request for PRO Housing grants. Vice President Harris has been highlighting the Administration’s investments in affordable housing and homeownership as part of her nationwide Economic Opportunity Tour in Georgia, Michigan, Wisconsin, and North Carolina.
“President Biden and I believe that every American deserves affordable housing so they have a roof over their head and a place to call home. That is why we have a plan to build millions of new units of affordable housing in communities all across our nation, which will bring down the cost of housing for renters and help more Americans buy a home,” said Vice President Harris. “Today, I am proud to announce that we are taking a critical step forward by investing $85 million to help more than 20 communities throughout our country remove barriers to building more affordable housing.”
HUD is awarding $85 million in funding through PRO Housing to 21 winners. The winners include jurisdictions ranging from under 5,000 residents in a rural community to millions of people across an urban county. In addition to the grant funding, winners will be invited to participate in a technical assistance cohort to facilitate peer learning and implementation support. HUD will also offer technical assistance for communities who applied for round one funding and other HUD grantees committed to addressing barriers to housing – highlighting how annual grants and low-cost federal financing can be used to adopt housing-forward strategies and boost housing supply.
“President Biden and Vice President Harris have prioritized reducing housing costs,” said HUD Acting Secretary Todman. “As I travel across the country, I hear from people all the time, including builders, elected officials, and other stakeholders, about how difficult it is to build housing. This is why I am pleased to announce our first round of PRO Housing funding, which will provide communities with incentives to address their local housing barriers. This expands on our ongoing efforts to lower housing costs by increasing the housing supply.”
The PRO Housing winners have already invested in strategies to boost housing supply, reform local regulations, incentivize development, prevent displacement, and encourage community driven solutions.
This announcement fulfills a commitment made in the Administration’s Housing Supply Action Plan, and builds on sweeping actions to reduce barriers, boost housing supply, and lower costs, including:
•Leveraging discretionary grant programs to encourage state and local action to build more housing. The U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) has updated its scoring criteria to reward applications from communities with pro-housing policies in place; already, DOT has announced approximately $22 billion in competitive grant funds using the revamped criteria. In addition, the Economic Development Administration (EDA) has updated its Investment Priorities to encourage economic development projects that enhance density.
•Updated guidance for converting commercial property to housing. Last fall, the White House released a Commercial to Residential Federal Resources Guidebook with over 20 federal programs across six federal agencies that can be used to support conversions. These programs include low-interest loans, loan guarantees, grants, and tax incentives, which, subject to the requirements of each program, may be used together to increase the economic viability of conversion projects.
•Provided low-cost capital for housing. The Federal Housing Administration (FHA) and Federal Financing Bank (FFB) Risk Sharing program provides capital to state and local housing finance agencies (HFAs), enabling them to insure multifamily loans at reduced interest rates to create and preserve high-quality, affordable rental homes. After the previous Administration suspended the program, the Biden-Harris Administration restarted it in 2021. Since then, more than 12,000 affordable housing units have been created or preserved, supported by almost $2 billion in FHA-insured loans made through the program. In February, HUD and Treasury extended the program indefinitely, which will create an estimated 38,000 additional units over ten years, as well as bolster HFA participation in the program.
•Finalized the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) “Income Averaging” rule.To qualify for LIHTC, developers must make commitments to create housing that is affordable to households that meet specific income thresholds. Income averaging allows a developer to meet the same affordability goals by taking the average of the income for some households who are in the property as opposed to requiring all to meet the same threshold. This “average-income test” for LIHTC qualification will enable the creation of more financially-stable, mixed-income developments and make LIHTC-supported housing more feasible in sparsely populated rural areas. It will also facilitate the production of additional affordable and available units for extremely low-income tenants. Treasury has also provided needed guidance to developers using LIHTC equity to build multifamily housing that is rented to tenants across a wider income spectrum.
•Streamlined and modernized the HOME program. Earlier this spring, HUD published a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking for the HOME Investment Partnership Program. The proposed rule, if finalized as proposed, would streamline program requirements for states and localities, better align HOME funding with other federal housing resources, reduce administrative burden for communities and housing developers, improve assistance and protections for renters, strengthen the use of HOME for homeownership activities, and encourage green and climate resilient building practices. The HOME program is a critical tool to bolster housing supply and preserve existing affordable housing at a time of need.
•Invested in making our nation’s affordable housing more energy efficient and resilient. This week, HUD announced an additional $142 million in funding to support energy efficiency and climate resiliency renovations to combat the climate crisis and improve the lives of residents in HUD-supported housing through the Green and Resilient Retrofit program (GRRP). As of today, HUD has announced a total of $686 million under this program.
•Published a $235 million funding opportunity to support manufactured housing communities. Through the Preservation and Reinvestment Initiative for Community Enhancement (PRICE) Program, HUD has made $225 million available to support manufactured housing communities and residents of manufactured homes. Applications are due July 10th.
•Increasing loan limits for Title I Manufactured Housing. FHA published a final rule increasing loan limits for the Title I Manufactured Housing program, which insures loans to finance the purchase or refinancing of manufactured homes titled as personal property. Doing so will allow FHA to better serve low- and moderate-income and first-time buyers of manufactured housing whose financing needs have not been well-served by the private market. Historically, HUD’s Title I program has been an important source of financing for manufactured homes, but low loan limits have made the program dormant in recent years. The rule will increase loan limits to be in line with current market prices and enable HUD to regularly update the limits in the future. To support this action, Ginnie Mae revised eligibility requirements for Issuers of its Manufactured Housing Mortgage-Backed Securities program. These actions are intended to reduce barriers to entry for Issuers and increase participation in its securitization program for Title I loans.
•Made historic investments in homebuilding and community development in Indian Country. HUD announced the largest ever funding investment in Native American housing for affordable housing activities including new housing construction, rehabilitation, housing services, and more.
•Expanded access to financing for homes with accessory dwelling units (ADUs).Announced a new policy to allow for the inclusion of rental income from an ADU in a borrower’s income. This action enables more homebuyers to purchase a home with an ADU or seek to add one to qualify for FHA-insured financing.
The Vice President’s announcement builds on her career of working to protect homeowners and address housing supply and affordability. As Attorney General of California, she helped pass the California Homeowner Bill of Rights to provide protections to homeowners facing foreclosure. As U.S. Senator, she introduced several bills to increase the supply of affordable housing and lower costs for renters.
Now as Vice President, she has led several announcements to ensure all families have a safe and affordable place to live, including $5.5 billion in new funding to boost affordable housing, invest in economic growth, build wealth, and address homelessness across America. The Vice President has also led the charge on addressing racial bias in home appraisals by announcing key actions of the PAVE Action Plan, including steps taken to make it easier for more homeowners to appeal home appraisals that may be undervalued because of racial bias.
* 以下内容基于机器翻译，未详细人工复检，仅供参考
政策简报：美国副总统卡玛拉·哈里斯宣布首个旨在通过减少建房障碍来降低住房成本的资金
2024年6月26日
今天宣布的8500万美元“消除住房障碍的途径”（PRO Housing）基金将赋能全国范围内的社区，通过本地主导的规划、基础设施、开发和保护活动，降低住房成本并增加住房供应，覆盖21个社区。
华盛顿——今天，哈里斯副总统宣布了“消除住房障碍的途径”（PRO Housing）补助金竞赛的获奖者，旨在建造更多住房并降低美国家庭的住房和租金成本。总统和副总统深知住房成本过高，因此，美国住房和城市发展部（HUD）创建了PRO Housing，这一首创性计划为积极应对新建单元障碍的社区提供资金支持。资金将用于更新州和地方的住房计划、土地使用政策、许可流程及其他旨在建造和保护更多经济适用房的行动。
我们已经看到一些进展。在本届政府任期内，建设的住房单元数量比过去50年中的任何时候都多，过去一年中许多地方的租金有所下降，且住房自有率比疫情前更高。但租金仍然过高，想要买房的美国人仍然难以找到负担得起的房屋。这就是为什么拜登总统和哈里斯副总统致力于降低住房成本，包括通过建造和保护更多住房来增加住房供应。在国情咨文中，拜登总统呼吁国会通过他和哈里斯副总统的计划，建造200万套额外住房，增加租房援助，并帮助首次和第一代购房者。
考虑到每个社区的情况不同，今天宣布的补助金对于打破阻碍住房开发和降低成本的地方障碍至关重要。PRO Housing申请中识别出的常见住房障碍包括土地和开发成本高昂、未充分利用的空置土地和房产、老化的住房存量、基础设施不足、流离失所压力、极端天气或环境风险，以及过时的土地使用和许可政策与流程。
对这些补助金的需求非常大，每1美元的可用资金就有13美元的请求。来自47个州和地区的175个以上社区提交了申请，代表了多样的人口统计和地理环境。拜登-哈里斯政府还将在今年夏天晚些时候发布额外的1亿美元PRO Housing资金。
今天宣布的补助金是在拜登-哈里斯政府为住房、基础设施和社区韧性提供的历史性资金水平基础上又迈出的重要一步。总统的FY25预算提议在住房方面进行历史性投资，总额超过2580亿美元，其中包括200亿美元的住房扩建创新基金，这将为进一步消除住房障碍、促进发展和鼓励创新住房解决方案提供关键支持。总统的FY25预算还提出了额外的1亿美元用于PRO Housing补助金的请求。哈里斯副总统一直在全国经济机会之旅中强调政府在可负担住房和房屋所有权方面的投资，这些旅程包括乔治亚州、密歇根州、威斯康星州和北卡罗来纳州。
“拜登总统和我相信每个美国人都应该拥有负担得起的住房，这样他们才能有个遮风避雨的地方，有个家可以称为‘家’。这就是为什么我们计划在全国各地的社区建设数百万套新经济适用房，这将降低租房者的住房成本，并帮助更多的美国人买房。”哈里斯副总统说。“今天，我很自豪地宣布，我们正迈出关键的一步，投资8500万美元，帮助全国超过20个社区消除建造更多经济适用房的障碍。”
通过PRO Housing计划，HUD向21个获奖者提供8500万美元的资金。这些获奖者包括从一个有不到5000居民的农村社区到一个有数百万人口的城市县的司法管辖区。除了补助资金外，获奖者还将被邀请参加一个技术援助学习小组，以促进同行学习和实施支持。HUD还将为申请过第一轮资金的社区以及其他致力于解决住房障碍的HUD资助者提供技术援助，重点强调如何利用年度补助金和低成本的联邦融资来采用以住房为导向的策略并增加住房供应。
“拜登总统和哈里斯副总统优先考虑降低住房成本，”HUD代理部长托德曼（Todman）说。“在我全国巡访时，我经常听到包括建筑商、民选官员和其他利益相关者在内的人们说建造住房有多难。这就是为什么我很高兴宣布我们第一轮的PRO Housing资金，它将为社区提供激励措施以解决其地方住房障碍。这扩展了我们通过增加住房供应来降低住房成本的持续努力。”
PRO Housing的获奖者已经在增加住房供应、改革地方法规、激励开发、预防流离失所以及鼓励社区驱动的解决方案方面进行了投资。
此公告履行了政府在住房供应行动计划中作出的承诺，并建立在一系列旨在减少障碍、增加住房供应和降低成本的重大举措之上，包括：
•利用自由裁量拨款计划鼓励州和地方政府采取行动建造更多住房。美国交通部（DOT）已更新评分标准，奖励已实施支持住房政策的社区申请，迄今已宣布约220亿美元的竞争性拨款资金。经济发展管理局（EDA）也更新了其投资优先事项，以鼓励提高密度的经济发展项目。
•更新了将商业地产转化为住房的指导方针。去年秋天，白宫发布了《商业转住宅联邦资源指南》，涵盖六个联邦机构的20多个联邦项目，支持此类转化项目。这些项目包括低息贷款、贷款担保、拨款和税收优惠，可能结合使用，以提高转化项目的经济可行性。
•为住房提供低成本资本。联邦住房管理局（FHA）和联邦融资银行（FFB）的风险分担计划为州和地方住房金融机构（HFA）提供资金，支持他们以较低的利率承保多户住宅贷款，从而创造和保护高质量的经济适用租赁住房。在上一届政府暂停该计划后，拜登-哈里斯政府于2021年重新启动该计划。自那以来，通过该计划的FHA承保贷款支持，已创建或保留了超过12,000个经济适用住房单元，总额近20亿美元。今年2月，住房和城市发展部（HUD）和财政部将该计划无限期延长，预计在未来十年内将创建约38,000个额外单元，并加强HFA对该计划的参与。
•完成了低收入住房税收抵免（LIHTC）“收入平均化”规则。为符合LIHTC资格，开发商必须承诺为符合特定收入门槛的家庭创造可负担的住房。收入平均化允许开发商通过计算某些家庭的平均收入来实现同样的负担能力目标，而不是要求所有家庭都符合相同的门槛。这一“平均收入测试”将使LIHTC支持的住房更适合稀疏人口的农村地区，同时促进极低收入租户的额外经济适用和可用单元的生产。财政部还向使用LIHTC股权建造多户住宅的开发商提供了所需的指导，这些住房出租给收入范围更广泛的租户。
•简化并现代化了HOME计划。今年春天，HUD发布了《HOME投资伙伴关系计划的拟议规则》。如果该规则最终如提议通过，将简化州和地方的项目要求，更好地将HOME资金与其他联邦住房资源对齐，减轻社区和住房开发商的行政负担，改善对租户的援助和保护，强化HOME在房屋所有权活动中的使用，并鼓励绿色和气候适应性建筑实践。HOME计划是增加住房供应和保护现有经济适用住房的重要工具。
•投资以使美国的经济适用住房更加节能和更具备韧性。本周，HUD宣布了额外的1.42亿美元资金，以支持通过绿色和韧性改造计划（GRRP）进行的节能和气候韧性翻新，以应对气候危机并改善HUD支持的住房居民的生活。截至今天，HUD已通过该计划宣布了总计6.86亿美元的资金。
•发布了2.35亿美元的资金机会以支持制造住房社区。通过社区提升保护和再投资计划（PRICE），HUD已提供2.25亿美元支持制造住房社区及其居民。申请截止日期为7月10日。
•提高了Title I制造住房贷款的限额。FHA发布了最终规则，提高了Title I制造住房计划的贷款限额，该计划承保用于购买或再融资作为个人财产登记的制造房屋的贷款。这将使FHA更好地为低收入和中等收入及首次购买制造住房的买家服务，后者的融资需求未得到私人市场的良好满足。历史上，HUD的Title I计划一直是制造房屋融资的重要来源，但由于贷款限额低，该计划在近年来处于停滞状态。该规则将使贷款限额与当前市场价格保持一致，并使HUD能够定期更新限额。为支持此行动，Ginnie Mae修订了其制造住房抵押贷款证券计划发行人的资格要求。这些行动旨在降低发行人的进入门槛，并增加其在Title I贷款证券化计划中的参与度。
•在印第安人居住区进行了历史性的住房建设和社区发展投资。HUD宣布了有史以来对印第安人住房进行的最大规模的资金投资，用于经济适用房活动，包括新建住房、翻修、住房服务等。
•扩大了附属住宅单元（ADU）住房融资的可得性。宣布了新的政策，允许将ADU的租金收入纳入借款人的收入。这一措施使得更多购房者能够购买带有ADU的住房或寻求增加ADU，以符合FHA承保融资的资格。
哈里斯副总统的公告建立在她职业生涯致力于保护房主和解决住房供应与可负担性问题的基础上。作为加利福尼亚州的司法部长，她帮助通过了《加州房主权利法案》，为面临丧失抵押品赎回权的房主提供保护。作为美国参议员，她提出了几项法案，旨在增加经济适用房的供应并降低租房者的成本。
现在，作为副总统，她主导了多项宣告，以确保所有家庭都有一个安全和负担得起的居所，其中包括55亿美元的新资金，以增加经济适用房，投资经济增长，积累财富，并解决全美范围内的无家可归问题。副总统还领导了应对房屋评估中种族偏见的行动计划（PAVE），其中包括采取关键步骤，简化更多房主因种族偏见导致低估房屋评估的申诉流程。
