Notice of Public Comment and Intent to Apply for the HUD Pathways to Removing Obstacles to Affordable Housing

DCA intends to apply for HUD’s current Pathways to Removing Obstacles (PRO) to Housing funding opportunity. In accordance with the notice, DCA posted our narrative application draft for public comment September 26, 2024 through Thursday October 10, 2024. DCA hosted a virtual public hearing on October 10, 2024 at 10 AM ET; you can view the public hearing recording online.

With this year’s HUD PRO proposal, DCA proposes to serve as a pass through entity for GICH communities to access a flexible funding source to address their housing barriers. DCA will do so through two different tools made possible by the HUD PRO funding opportunity. 

• GICH PRO Grants: Housing Assessment and Planning Grants (Total requested $1,500,000)
  • What? GICH provides access to an educational cohort to help community stakeholders understand how to address their local needs. An essential piece that many communities start early on is a housing needs review or housing assessment; while this is not a requirement to participate in the program, it does provide an advantage to communities who pay to complete one. To provide that advantage to all participants, DCA would create GICH PRO grants so that new cohort communities could use the funding to complete a housing study and existing cohort communities could use the funding to support a housing development plan. In response to public comment, DCA will also make an additional one to two awards available annually for GICH alumni who are pursuing re-certification, including those in the Hurricane Helene disaster affected areas.
  • Future GICH PRO Grant awards would be up to $50,000 toward the cost of a Housing Study or Needs Assessment or Housing Development Plan for the community.  
• GICH Senior Year PRO Loans: Housing Opportunity Low Interest Loan (Total requested $4,000,000)
  • What? Even after participating in GICH, GICH communities identified outstanding barriers to helping them accomplish their housing plans. These outstanding barriers include land acquisition costs, grant administration, and site preparation expenses. For example, the inaugural GICH Senior Year community Gainesville identified a lack of flexible funding sources as a barrier in implementing their affordable housing production plans. DCA will use the HUD PRO funds to create a revolving low interest loan for GICH Senior Year communities to pay for development costs that are not otherwise covered by other programs.
  • GICH Senior Year communities and their partners are only eligible for one loan, and loans would not exceed $1,000,000 per community. Communities or their partners would pay back the funds at low interest, ensuring that funding remains available for future GICH Senior Year participants.