Mayors and CEOs Launch U.S. Housing Investment Coalition

A group of U.S. mayors and CEOs launched the Mayors & CEOs for U.S. Housing Investment coalition on January 25. In addition to the CEOs of Airbnb, GHC Housing Partners, and Sutter Health, the coalition includes mayors from Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, the District of Columbia, and Pennsylvania. The late San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee initiated the idea to create a coalition of private and public partners to support affordable housing and address homelessness. The coalition will focus advocacy efforts at the federal level to ensure adequate funding for important programs like Housing Choice Vouchers, Continuum of Care Homeless Assistance Grants, Community Development Block Grants (CDBG), and HOME Investment Partnerships programs.

The coalition also looks to create three public-private partnership programs. The Housing Innovation, Investment and Reform Opportunities (HIRO) program would provide competitive grants to encourage cross-sector projects aimed at addressing homelessness and the affordable housing crisis. The HUD Partnerships Accelerating Supportive Services (HUD-PASS) would pair HUD housing vouchers with services from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to provide targeted support for families experiencing homelessness and confronting multiple barriers to overcoming their homelessness. The Housing Stabilization Fund creates a funding pool to provide one-time, short-term emergency housing assistance to help keep families in stable housing during an emergency.