Bloomberg Philanthropies Backs Cities to Replicate Housing Solutions

Bloomberg Philanthropies is launching an initiative to fund up to 30 U.S. cities in adopting proven affordable housing solutions pioneered in San Diego, Austin, and Atlanta. The program will provide each city with direct funding and technical assistance over two years, aiming to accelerate the adoption of strategies that address slow permitting processes, increase housing density, and improve inter-agency coordination.

The initiative, which includes grants of $450,000 to $750,000 per city, is designed to help municipalities overcome the know-how gap rather than invent new solutions. "You don’t need everyone to be innovating everything all the time when there are good ideas in the world that are working," said James Anderson, head of Bloomberg Philanthropies’ government innovation program. "They need help adapting those ideas to local contexts."

San Diego, facing rising rents and homelessness, overhauled its permitting process. In January 2023, Mayor Todd Gloria signed an executive order mandating that fully affordable housing projects be reviewed within 30 business days. This led to streamlined departmental work and filled vacant positions, resulting in an average of nine-day reviews for such projects within a year. In 2023, San Diego approved 9,691 homes, an 82% increase from the previous year and its highest total since at least 2005.

Austin adopted a different approach, implementing zoning reforms that allow up to three homes on most single-family lots and reducing the minimum lot size. These changes, enacted in late 2023 and early 2024, have made it easier to add housing, including accessory dwelling units (ADUs). These efforts followed a construction boom that has contributed to a decrease in asking rents since the pandemic, making Austin one of the few major American cities to see falling rents.

Atlanta’s strategy, led by Mayor Andre Dickens, involved creating a "housing strike force." This cross-agency team convenes leaders from public agencies involved in housing, including the housing authority, school system, transit agency, and land bank. The strike force aims to advance the city's goal of building or preserving 20,000 affordable homes by 2030 by accelerating deals through mayoral oversight and regular inter-agency reporting. "Every housing deal now comes to the mayor’s office, and I just start pushing buttons to push them out the door," Dickens stated.

The 15 cities initially selected for the program include Albuquerque, Chattanooga, Cleveland, Durham, Louisville, Miami, Nashville, Pittsburgh, and San Jose. The grants are intended to fund city staff, software, and expertise development. This effort aligns with federal efforts, such as the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act, which offers competitive grants for cities modernizing permitting and utilizing public land.

However, the initiative faces limitations. Experts note that the two-year funding may not be sufficient to sustain new positions long-term, especially in cities with already strained budgets. "It’s not clear what will happen to city capacity when the foundation funding runs out," the notes indicate.

For cities like Cleveland, which is entering the program with a need for capacity building in various staff roles, the funding is seen as a crucial support. Mayor Justin Bibb plans to direct the strike force towards a housing innovation district focused on code enforcement and rehabilitation in an older industrial city that has only recently stopped shrinking.

Bloomberg Philanthropies is organizing the participating cities into cohorts, pairing them with the pioneering cities for mentorship and advice. This structured approach aims to ensure clarity on the political and technical challenges, costs, and lessons learned during the implementation process. The foundation has a history of such initiatives, including its Idea Exchange, which has facilitated policy replication across numerous cities globally.

While these strategies do not address broader economic factors like interest rates or material costs, they are expected to contribute to increased city housing supply and faster approval timelines. The initiative seeks to demonstrate how effective ideas can be scaled to address the nationwide housing shortage.