National Association of Counties announces county cohort dedicated to increasing housing supply

Seven county teams selected for second Counties for Housing Solutions cohort 

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The National Association of Counties (NACo) and Smart Growth America today announced the launch of the second Counties for Housing Solutions (C4HS) cohort. NACo created C4HS to help counties implement recommendations from NACo’s Housing Task Force, chartered in 2023 to address America’s housing crisis. 

By implementing strategies to increase housing supply, participating counties will bring down rents and create a pathway to upward economic mobility for county residents. Over the course of 2024 and 2025, NACo is administering three C4HS cohorts in partnership with Smart Growth America. This second sprint will help counties develop underutilized, county-owned land as affordable housing over just 12 weeks, from April-June 2025. 

“NACo’s Housing Task Force laid out actionable ways for counties to address our nation’s housing crisis. Now, Counties for Housing Solutions is seamlessly supporting counties in following that road map,” said NACo Executive Director Matthew Chase. “We look forward to sharing learnings from this cohort as we work to enhance housing affordability and improve residents’ quality of life in counties across America.” 

Selected county teams will work through a step-by-step plan to: 

• Identify available land,
• Evaluate site selection,
• Plan community engagement activities,
• Partner with potential developers and
• Identify financing for affordable housing development on underdeveloped land. 

The teams selected for participation in the Spring 2025 cohort are: 

• Baltimore City, Md.
• Cheshire, Grafton and Sullivan Counties, N.H.
• Chesterfield County, Va.
• Genesee County, Mich.
• Honolulu County, Hawaii
• Mecklenburg County, N.C.
• Pierce County, Wash. 

This new cohort builds on successes from a previous cohort whose results included: 

• Guilford County N.C.: Develop a former school site into a residential multifamily and mixed-use commercial space (estimated 100-120 housing units).
• Harris County, Texas: Redevelop a stadium into an entertainment district bolstered with 3,000 housing units (1,200 affordable units).
• Hidalgo County, Texas: Create a community of 25 duplexes on public open space, co-locating 50 families near a local school and commercial retail corridor (50 housing units).
• Jackson County, Mo.: Develop a large site located near a sports stadium into mixed-income, mixed-use housing, with dedicated units for seniors.
• Salt Lake County, Utah: Create a missing middle housing community on a site co-located near grocery stores, commercial spaces and a local school (8-45 units depending on the housing typology selected).
• Shelby County, Tenn.: Utilize scattered land bank parcels to develop missing middle housing across a selected neighborhood to spur further community investment and decrease neighborhood vacancy rates (estimated 25+ units). 

C4HS is part of Counties for Economic Mobility, a NACo initiative for county leaders to advance equitable upward economic mobility and move individuals and families out of poverty. Counties for Economic Mobility supports a range of activities to drive data-driven and community-informed policymaking in county government.