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HUD’s Pathways to Removing Obstacles to Housing (PRO Housing) Grant

September 26, 2024

Are you interested in partnering with Centralina to create affordable “aging in place” and workforce housing options in your community?

Centralina Regional Council is preparing a proposal for the Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Pathways to Removing Obstacles to Housing (PRO Housing) grant due on October 15, 2024. The proposal supports removing local barriers (where desired and appropriate) to increase innovative affordable housing production and lower housing cost burdens for residents. This is a 6-year grant period (2025-30) and up to $100 M is available nationwide. Individual grant awards range from $1 – $7 M.

Your Opportunity to Participate

Centralina is seeking local government partners who are interested in receiving planning and technical assistance support to examine local opportunities to reduce barriers to affordable housing preservation and production. Affordable or workforce housing is defined here as housing that is affordable to households earning up to $106,000 (100% AMI) for a family of four and one-person households earning up to $74,200. Centralina’s approach is to increase local awareness, acceptance and availability of innovative housing types, such as Accessory Dwelling Units (ADU), Tiny Homes, modular housing, certified manufactured housing and emerging technologies such as 3-D printed homes.

Centralina is considering the following portfolio of activities under the grant proposal that will address the barriers to workforce housing production and preservation of new and innovative housing types in our region. Please note no local funding match required; however, verification of in-kind local staff support is desired for the grant application.

Contact Geraldine Gardner or Christina Danis at ggardner@centralina.org or cdanis@centralina.org regarding your interest in participating in one or more of the activities.

Grant Activity	Solves For…	Grant Deliverables	Local Participation Benefits
Workforce Housing Awareness & Education	Uneven local understanding of workforce housing needs, innovative construction and housing types, etc. Limited, local education opportunities for decision makers	Regional information campaign on innovative housing types, including HUD’s new policy and regulations related to manufactured homes. Modules for workforce housing education for elected officials and appointed Boards	Inform regional campaign development Provide input on training module development Receive initial training for your elected and appointed Boards
Regional Network Development	Lack of regional networks and convenings specifically on workforce housing Lack of opportunities to connect decision makers, funders, builders and manufacturers Limited knowledge of housing construction innovation	Host 3 regional housing summits during the grant period (2026, 2028, 2030) Design and implement Centralina Learns content for housing	Connect with peer communities and experts in the affordable housing spaces including builders, developers, financial institutions Learn best practices
Local Plan & Code Enhancements	Barriers in local codes and regulations that prevent the utilization “innovative housing types”	Model plan and code language to support inclusion of ADUs, Tiny Homes, modular housing, certified Manufactured Homes, 3-D Printed Homes Regional “playbook” to support code adoption, site planning and alignment of local development regulations	Code review or housing plan review and recommendations development based on the needs of your community
Pilot Project Development	Need for technical assistance to support the development of a innovative housing type project (newly developed, preservation and/or rehabi of existing units)	Deliverables for participating local governments could include: Preparing affordable housing grant applications and bolster CDBG funds with the HUD PRICE grant, NC Commerce, REDD, etc. Supporting the development of manufactured home community cooperatives and the replacement/upgrade of substandard manufactured housing Site planning for a Tiny Home or ADU pilot project in your community

Public Hearing

The Centralina Regional Council will hold an in-person public hearing on Thursday, October 10, 2024, at 4:00 PM, at the Centralina Regional Council, located at 10735 David Taylor Drive, Suite 250, Charlotte, NC 28262, ground level Resource 4 conference room, to obtain feedback and to enable citizens the opportunity to comment on the HUD PRO Housing grant application.

If you wish to attend the meeting and would like to receive the meeting materials, please contact Zsuzsi Kadar at (704) 688-7033 or zkadar@centralina.org.

If you cannot make it to the meeting in person, you will have the opportunity to join virtually via the following Zoom link:
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/88623413635?pwd=YYTKdRabMmjGaH1Tsg9DOwOKKl2kak.1&from=addon
Meeting ID: 886 2341 3635
Passcode: 286634

Anyone needing special modifications when attending this meeting, has non-English-speaking needs and/or if this information is needed in an alternative format because of a disability, please contact Zsuzsi Kadar at (704) 688-7033 or zkadar@centralina.org. We request at least 72 hours’ notice prior to the meeting to make the appropriate arrangements.Comments can be sent via mail to Centralina Regional Council located at 10735 David Taylor Drive, Suite 250, Charlotte, NC 28262, Attn: Zsuzsi Kadar; or emailed to zkadar@centralina.org. All comments must be received by October 13, 2024, at 5:00 pm, to be considered for the publication of the PRO Housing grant application.