PIMA COUNTY, Sept. 30, 2024 — Pima County and the City of Tucson are asking for the public’s input on the draft application for federal funds that would be used to make housing more affordable in low-poverty, high-opportunity areas, as well as to increase housing supply overall. 

The Pathways to Removing Obstacles to Housing (PRO Housing) grant program, from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), is specifically targeted at removing obstacles to the development and preservation of affordable housing, especially in areas of opportunity.  

Public comment on the draft application opened Friday, Sept. 27, and a public hearing will be held on Friday, Oct. 11, at 9 a.m. in the Terrace Conference Room, located on the second floor of 310 N. Commerce Park Loop. Interested persons also may register for the public hearing via Zoom. 

The City is the lead applicant for this joint City/County $7 million grant that includes the following activities: 

• Continued zoning and land use reforms
• Tiny homes and missing middle housing  
• Increasing City and County housing and development planner capacity 
• Capacity building for small-scale infill developers 
• Transportation impact fee subsidies and gap funding for affordable housing development 
• Development of housing on City-owned property 
• Evaluation of grant funded activities  

Public comments on the draft application will be accepted through Friday, Oct. 11, and can be sent via email to HCDComment@tucsonaz.gov, through fax to 520-791-5407, in person or by mail addressed to:  

Housing and Community Development Department

Attn: Sarah Megginson 

310 Commerce Park Loop; Tucson, AZ 85745 

For accommodations such as materials in accessible formats, foreign language interpreters and/or materials in a language other than English, call Rachel Hutchinson with the City of Tucson Housing and Community Development Department at 520-837-5447 or for TDD at 520-791-2639 at least five business days in advance. 

This action from the City and County aligns with the Board of Supervisors-approved Prosperity Initiative, a set of policies in a regional partnership working to reduce generational poverty. The Prosperity Initiative’s housing supply and opportunity policy calls for an increase in the supply of affordable housing, especially in low-poverty, high-opportunity neighborhoods. The application to HUD’s PRO Housing grant program was one of the implementation ideas in the policy.