HIGHLIGHTS
- HUD seeks to ensure the availability of affordable housing near public transit and other major transportation investments.
- Abt is leading a technical assistance team to help local communities holistically meet housing, transportation and other infrastructure needs to create thriving communities.
- Abt will launch our technical assistance and capacity building support in spring 2023.
PROJECT
Thriving Communities Technical Assistance
The Challenge
The successful coordination of affordable housing and transportation investments requires navigating different departments, agencies, and processes, which can be a challenge at any level of government. As funds from the federal Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (also known as the “Bipartisan Infrastructure Law”) are released, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development is helping local governments ensure affordable housing needs are considered as part of their larger infrastructure investment plans. Another goal is supporting equitable development and local economic development ecosystems in historically disadvantaged communities. The Thriving Communities Technical Assistance program highlights four approaches to meeting these goals, to be supported via technical assistance and capacity building:
- Identifying and using vacant, abandoned, or underutilized land on or near transportation projects that would be suitable for location-efficient housing.
- Preserving affordable housing and protecting residents and businesses from being displaced as new infrastructure is created.
- Identifying and implementing regulatory and procedural reforms that would reduce unnecessary barriers (including cost increases) to developing location-efficient housing.
- Improving coordination both among public entities in different sectors and between those entities, state recipients of infrastructure funding, transit authorities and other quasi-public entities, the private sector, and locally based organizations.
Abt Global is leading one of two teams that received funding to provide technical assistance.
The Approach
Abt and our partners—Alabama A&M University, EPR, Equitable Cities, and the National Housing Trust—will help local governments maximize their investments across their housing and infrastructure investments by building their capacity to ensure equitable access to housing, jobs, resources, and transit access in their own backyards. Activities include:
- Providing needs assessments to help define the path forward.
- Creating the tools and training—and delivering the technical assistance—needed for progress.
- Measuring that progress using quantitative and qualitative measures that center community voices.
- Working with communities to ensure equity is embedded in their processes and outcomes.
The Results
Abt and our partners will begin providing tailored technical assistance to communities in spring 2023.
Learn more information about the program.
Thriving Communities is a project funded by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). The information provided on this website is not official U.S. government information and does not represent the views or positions of HUD or the U.S. government.