HUD Seeks Info on Eliminating Regulatory Barriers to Affordable Housing

HUD recently published a Request for Information (RFI) seeking public comment on federal, state, local, and tribal laws, regulations, land use requirements, and administrative practices that artificially raise the costs of affordable housing development and contribute to shortages in America’s housing supply.

The RFI is a request for members of the public to share their knowledge and provide recommendations to HUD regarding regulations and practices that unnecessarily impede housing supply and information on innovative practices that promote increased housing supply. In this RFI, HUD is seeking information on the following:

• Specific HUD regulations, statutes, programs, and practices that directly or indirectly restrict the supply of housing or increase the cost of housing;
• Policy interventions, solutions, or strategies available to state, local, and federal decision makers to provide incentives to state and local governments to review their regulatory environment or aid them in streamlining, reducing, or eliminating the negative impact of state and local laws, regulations, and administrative practices;
• Ways that state-level laws, practices, and programs contribute to delays in the construction industry and specific laws, practices, and programs that could be reviewed;
• Common motivations or factors that underlie local governments’ adoption of laws, regulations, and practices that demonstrably raise the cost of housing development, and whether such factors vary geographically;
• Peer-reviewed research and/or representative surveys that provide quantitative analyses on the impact of regulations on the cost of affordable housing development;
• Performance measures, quantitative and/or qualitative, that the White House Council on Eliminating Regulatory Barriers to Affordable Housing should consider in assessing the reduction of barriers nationally or regionally and advantages and disadvantages of each measure; and
• Recommendations on how to best utilize HUD’s Regulatory Barriers Clearinghouse for states, local governments, researchers, and policy analysts who are tracking reform activity across the country.

The RFI is a part of the work Secretary Carson is undertaking as the Chair of the White House Council on Eliminating Regulatory Barriers to Affordable Housing. Responses to this RFI must be submitted online and are due by Jan. 20, 2020. The notice can be found here.