Mayors, Homebuilders, and HUD Create Partnership to Build One Million New Homes Over Next 10 Years

By Eugene T. Lowe

On February 4, Baltimore Kurt Schmoke joined Vice President Al Gore, HUD Secretary Andrew Cuomo, National Association of Homebuilders President Charles Ruma, and Michelle Speaks, a single mother who recently purchased a home in a new housing development in the city of Baltimore called Spicer's Run, to announce an agreement between The U.S. Conference of Mayors, the National Association of Homebuilders (NAHB) and the Department of Housing and Urban Development to work together to build one million new homes over the next 10 years in America's cities.

Under the agreement, The U.S. Conference of Mayors will encourage its members to work with HUD and NAHB to help cities develop and implement strategies for clear obstacles to new home production.

NAHB will work through its more than 800 state and local homebuilder associations to encourage homebuilders to pursue urban residential development opportunities, while working with local jurisdictions to identify and clear obstacles to private sector participation.

HUD will provide community builders in the selected cities to assist mayors and home builders to identify new federal resources for this initiative, such as the HOME Program, Homeownership Zones, Empowerment Zones, and Residential Brownfields to Backyards, and ensure coordination among existing federal programs.

The initiative will begin with five to ten cities as pilot programs. From these cities models will be developed to help guide a national effort.

The Conference will create a Council on Building Homes in America's Cities, that will have representatives from HUD, NAHB, USCM and other organizations that will provide a forum for communication and interaction between HUD, participating cities, home builders, partners of the National Homeownership Strategy, and others. In addition to monitoring the progress of the initiative, the Council will develop best practices that can be replicated in cities across the nation.

Vice President Gore said of the initiative: "By committing to build one million new homes over the next ten years, the homebuilders, the U.S. Conference of Mayors and the Department of Housing and Urban Development will create new opportunities for affordable home ownership and help American families fulfill the dream of owning their own home -- all of which will also help to revitalize and strengthen America's cities."

"This is the first widely implemented public-private partnership to create new housing in our cities," Cuomo said. "It recognizes that homebuilders can do things for cities and do well financially at the same time. HUD and cities will work to coordinate available public resources to make it easier to build homes in cities. Homebuilders will work to expand their businesses in cities."