News Analysis

HUD Rethinking Affordable Housing Location, Financing

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development is revamping many of its programs to encourage dense, mixed-use, transit-oriented development.

Sweeping policy changes are in the works for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), moving the agency toward smarter, sustainable development. As HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan told attendees at the Congress for the New Urbanism in May 2010, “It’s time that federal dollars stopped encouraging sprawl and started lowering the barriers to the kind of sustainable development our country needs and our communities want.”

Among its initiatives for smarter growth, HUD will encourage transit-oriented development by using LEED for Neighborhood Development (LEED-ND) when screening potential projects, and by updating financing rules to allow mixed-use development. Donovan has also announced a pilot program, Choice Neighborhoods, for encouraging responsible, mixed-use development.

Published July 30, 2010

Wendt, A. (2010, July 30). HUD Rethinking Affordable Housing Location, Financing. Retrieved from https://www.buildinggreen.com/news-analysis/hud-rethinking-affordable-housing-location-financing