Counties for Housing Solutions
Housing is a key component of economic mobility, yet continues to be a challenge for many residents. NACo’s Counties for Housing Solutions (C4HS) program offers free 10-week technical assistance sprints to address this challenge by helping counties increase local housing supply. In partnership with Smart Growth America, these sprints are designed to be high-intensity and implementation-focused and will draw upon recommendations made by NACo’s 2023 Housing Task Force.
The first technical assistance sprint will help counties develop underutilized, county-owned land as affordable housing. It will run for a 10-week period from September 11 to November 13, 2024. NACo will select eight (8) counties, parishes or boroughs to be part of the first technical assistance sprint. Counties must have populations greater than 500,000 and county-owned land available for affordable housing use.
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.
Eight weeks will be joint, weekly training sessions with all participating teams. Two weeks will be reserved for one-on-one office hours to address policy customization to local conditions. At the end of 10 weeks, each participating county will be on track to develop county-owned land for residential use.
Counties for Housing Solutions is part of Counties for Economic Mobility, a National Association of Counties initiative for county leaders to advance equitable upward economic mobility to 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.
Applications Open
Applications are now open. Please fill out a complete application and email it as a Word or PDF attachment to Patrick Spence at economicmobility@naco.org. The application deadline is July 29, 2024, 11:59 p.m. EDT.
Resource
Advancing Local Housing Affordability: NACo Housing Task Force Final Report
Other Counties for Economic Mobility Programs
Applications CLOSED: Rural Leaders for Economic Mobility (RLEM)
NACo is partnering with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to create a peer-learning opportunity for rural county leaders to advance upward economic mobility to move individuals and families in their communities out of poverty. NACo will select 10 member counties with populations of less than 50,000 to be part of the new Rural Leaders for Economic Mobility (RLEM) cohort.
Economic Mobility Resource Hub
Explore these resources to promote inclusive economic prosperity for county residents.
County Levers to Drive Economic Mobility: Local Solutions and Strategies
This report focuses on the underlying elements of economic mobility and identifies how county leaders can use local power and authority to leverage county policy, planning and service delivery as levers to foster upward mobility for residents.
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