Metro Lex News

The Lexington Fayette Urban County Government's (LFUCG) Department of Housing Advocacy and Community Development is seeking public comment on its application for federal grant funding from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development's (HUD) Pathways to Removing Obstacles to Housing (PRO Housing) funding opportunity.  

HUD has issued a Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) under the authority of the Consolidated Appropriations Act 2023, which appropriates $85 million for competitive grant funding for the identification and removal of barriers to affordable housing production and preservation. Congress has directed HUD to undertake a competition using the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) statutory and regulatory framework. Under this NOFO, HUD will provide PRO Housing grants to identify and remove barriers to affordable housing production and preservation. Grantees may use awards to further develop, evaluate, and implement housing policy plans, improve housing strategies, and facilitate affordable housing production and preservation. Eligible applicants are local and state governments, metropolitan planning organizations (MPOs), and multijurisdictional entities.

HUD has six goals for this competition:

Fairly and effectively award the PRO Housing grant funding

Elevate and enable promising practices dedicated to identifying and removing barriers to affordable housing production and preservation, while preventing displacement

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 those barriers

Affirmatively further fair housing by addressing and removing barriers that perpetuate segregation, barriers that inhibit access to well-resourced areas of opportunity for protected class groups and vulnerable populations, and barriers that concentrate affordable housing in under-resourced areas.  

Facilitate collaboration and harness innovative approaches from jurisdictions, researchers, advocates, and stakeholders.

To review LFUCG's application for the PRO Housing grant, find out how to submit comments about the application, and obtain information about attending a public hearing on Oct. 30, 2023, regarding the application, click the link below or visit lexingtonky.gov/pro-housing.

Original source can be found here.