{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.schatz.senate.gov/news/press-releases/more-than-66-million-in-federal-funding-from-new-schatz-created-grant-program-heading-to-hawaii-to-build-more-housing", "More Than $6.6 Million In Federal Funding From New Schatz-Created Grant Program Heading To Hawai\u2018i To Build More Housing", "2024-06-26", "2024", "2024-06", "Democrat", "Senate", "HI", "Brian Schatz", "S001194", "www.schatz.senate.gov", "schatz", "https://www.schatz.senate.gov/news/press-releases", "scraper", "WASHINGTON \u2013 U.S. Senator Brian Schatz (D-Hawai\u2018i), chair of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Housing and Urban Development, today announced Hawai\u2018i has been awarded more than $6.6 million in new federal grant funding to help build more housing. The funding comes from a new grant program based on Schatz\u2019s bipartisan \u2018Yes In My Backyard\u2019 legislation and was first funded in the fiscal year 2023 appropriations bill. The new Pathways to Removing Obstacles to Housing (PRO Housing) program rewards state and local governments that reform land-use policies and other local barriers that constrain the supply of affordable housing. In Hawai\u2018i, lack of infrastructure has been cited as an important obstacle to building more housing. With this PRO Housing grant, Hawai\u2018i will create a State Infrastructure Bank as long-term infrastructure financing solution to unlock housing production at a larger, more impactful scale than existing initiatives. The state also recently passed a landmark pro-housing package to allow more homes in urban areas and in commercial zones.\n\n\u201cSolving our state\u2019s housing crisis is one of the biggest challenges of this generation. It will take our collective efforts \u2013 federal, state, and county \u2013 to solve it. That\u2019s why we created this grant program and are helping reward states like Hawai\u2018i that are doing the right thing to build more housing and help local families find an affordable home,\u201d said Senator Schatz.\n\nFor decades, local zoning and land use regulations as well as lack of necessary housing-related infrastructure have prevented housing production from keeping pace with population and economic growth, resulting in a nationwide housing shortage. The PRO Housing program, a first-of-its-kind federal program, will help reverse this trend by rewarding state, local, and regional jurisdictions that address exclusionary zoning practices, land use policies, and housing infrastructure to increase the supply of affordable housing. These policies include increasing density, reducing minimum lot sizes, creating transit-oriented development zones, streamlining or shortening permitting processes and timelines, expanding by-right multifamily zoned areas, allowing accessory dwelling units on lots with single family homes, eliminating or relaxing residential property height limitations, eliminating or reducing off-street parking requirements, and allowing the conversion of vacant retail and office space into residential housing. In this first round, applications were submitted from more than 175 communities \u2013 representing a wide variety of demographics, geographies and population sizes \u2013 across 47 States and territories.\n\nSchatz secured an additional $100 million for the new grant program in the Transportation, Housing and Urban Development fiscal year 2024 appropriations bill, which was signed into law in March.\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-07T21:11:47Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.schatz.senate.gov/news/press-releases/more-than-66-million-in-federal-funding-from-new-schatz-created-grant-program-heading-to-hawaii-to-build-more-housing"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.4493637718260288, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}