Pathways to Removing Obstacles to Housing

(PRO Housing)

Department of Housing and Urban Development

Proposed Cut

$50M

% Reduction

100.0%

Action Type

elimination

Who Is Served

States/localities pursuing zoning reform and housing production

Summary

PRO Housing is a competitive grant program run by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development that helps states, cities, and regional planning agencies remove local zoning and permitting rules that block new home construction. The FY2027 budget proposes eliminating this program entirely, cutting its $50 million in funding by 100 percent, because the administration considers zoning-reform grants an inappropriate federal intrusion into local land-use decisions.

Who Is Affected

In its first two rounds, PRO Housing sent $85 million to 21 grantees in 2023 and $100 million more in 2024, including cities like Milwaukee and Iowa City, counties like Los Angeles, and states like Hawaii and Rhode Island, all using the money to rewrite zoning codes, streamline permitting, and encourage accessory dwelling units and affordable housing production. Losing the $50 million would end this specific funding stream for local governments that were relying on it to pay planners, consultants, and staff to carry out zoning studies and code updates already underway.

What this cut would actually mean

Without PRO Housing money, many of the zoning-reform and permitting-streamlining projects that cities and states started, such as Rhode Island's plan to expand affordable housing through community-led zoning changes, would lose their funding source and could stall or shrink in scope. Because the program has been the main dedicated federal source specifically for local zoning-barrier removal, its elimination means fewer communities will have the staff and technical resources to speed up housing permitting, which housing researchers link to lower housing production and continued high home prices and rents in tight housing markets.

Why this hits Alabama harder

Alabama already relied on this exact program: the City of Montgomery won a $3.5 million PRO Housing grant to rebuild long-neglected housing along the historic Selma-to-Montgomery corridor. Alabama's statewide poverty rate is about 15-16%, well above the roughly 12% national rate, and poverty tops 30% in many Black Belt counties like those Montgomery serves. Ending this grant program removes a funding tool that historically disinvested, high-poverty Alabama communities have used and could use again, so eliminating it likely hurts Alabama more than most states.

WINNERS - HUD Awards $85 Million in PRO Housing Funding (FY23 Fact Sheet) — HUD fact sheet showing the City of Montgomery, Alabama received a $3.5 million PRO Housing grant to build and rehabilitate affordable housing along the historic Selma to Montgomery Trail, an area with decades of disinvestment.
Montgomery among recipients of affordable housing grant - Alabama Reflector/AL Reporter — Reports that Montgomery, Alabama was one of only 21 first-round PRO Housing grant winners nationally, receiving over $3.5 million to support housing-forward community development.
How agricultural transition and uneven development deepen poverty in Alabama's Black Belt — Notes that Alabama's overall poverty rate is about 15.6%, above the roughly 12% U.S. rate, with Black Belt counties exceeding 30% poverty.
USAFacts - What is the poverty rate in Alabama? — Reports Alabama's 2024 poverty rate at 15.2%, among the higher rates in the nation, providing context for why housing-assistance cuts affect the state's high-poverty communities disproportionately.

Sources

President Trump's FY2027 Budget: Overview of Housing Programs — Bipartisan Policy Center summary of HUD's FY2027 budget request, including the 13% overall HUD funding cut and elimination of several HUD grant programs.
FY24 PRO Housing Fact Sheet — HUD fact sheet describing the second round of PRO Housing funding ($100 million) and its purpose of removing barriers to affordable housing production.
HUD Pathways to Removing Obstacles to Housing (PRO Housing) Competition - EveryCRSReport.com — Congressional Research Service report explaining PRO Housing's legal authority under the Housing and Community Development Act of 1974 and its first $85 million appropriation.
First Round of Federal PRO Housing Awards Announced - LeSar Development Consultants — Details on the 21 first-round PRO Housing grantees, award amounts, and the scope of applicant interest (175+ communities across 47 states).
PRO Housing Grant Award - State of Rhode Island Summary — Example of how a PRO Housing grantee (Rhode Island) planned to use its $3.8 million award for zoning and community housing initiatives.