Office of Public Affairs
DOT 32-09
Contact: Jill Zuckman, Tel.: (202) 366-4570
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
HUD and DOT Partnership: Sustainable Communities
U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Shaun
Donovan and U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) Secretary Ray LaHood
today announced a new partnership to help American families gain better
access to affordable housing, more transportation options, and lower
transportation costs. The average working American family spends nearly 60
percent of its budget on housing and transportation costs, making these
two areas the largest expenses for American families. Donovan and LaHood
want to seek ways to cut these costs by focusing their efforts on creating
affordable, sustainable communities.
The Secretaries discussed their plans for sustainable communities today at
a U.S. House of Representatives Appropriations Subcommittee on
Transportation and Housing hearing titled, “Livable Communities, Transit
Oriented Development, and incorporating Green Building Practices into
Federal Housing and Transportation.”
“One of my highest priorities is to help promote more livable communities
through sustainable surface transportation programs,” said Secretary
LaHood.
“This partnership will help expand every American family’s choices for
affordable housing and transportation,” said Secretary Donovan. “HUD’s
central mission – ensuring that every American has access to decent,
affordable housing – can be achieved only in context of the housing,
transportation, and energy costs and choices that American families
experience each day.”
DOT and HUD have created a high-level interagency task force to better
coordinate federal transportation and housing investments and identify
strategies to give American families:
• More choices for affordable housing near employment opportunities;
• More transportation options, to lower transportation costs, shorten
travel times, and improve the environment;
• Mhe ability to combine several errands into one trip through better
coordination of transportation and land uses; and
• Safe, livable, healthy communities.
The HUD/DOT task force will:
• Enhance integrated regional housing, transportation, and land use
planning and investment. The task force will set a goal to have every
major metropolitan area in the country conduct integrated housing,
transportation, and land use planning and investment in the next four
years. To facilitate integrated planning, HUD and DOT propose, through
HUD’s proposed Sustainable Communities Initiative which it will administer
in consultation with DOT, to make planning grants available to
metropolitan areas, and create mechanisms to ensure those plans are
carried through to localities. DOT will encourage MPOs to conduct this
integrated planning as a part of their next long range transportation plan
update and will provide technical assistance on scenario planning, a tool
for assessing future growth alternatives that better coordinate land use
and transportation planning.
o This effort will help metropolitan areas set a vision
for growth and apply federal transportation, housing and other investments
in an integrated approach to support that vision. HUD currently requires
states, cities, and counties to prepare a five-year Consolidated Plan
estimating housing status and needs. Concurrently, DOT requires States and
metropolitan areas to develop Long Range Transportation Plans and
four-year Transportation Improvement Programs. Coordinating these
federally mandated planning efforts, including planning cycles, processes
and geographic coverage, will make more effective use of Federal housing
and transportation dollars.
• Redefine affordability and make it transparent. The task force will
develop Federal housing affordability measures that include housing, and
transportation costs and other costs that affect location choices.
Although transportation costs now approach or exceed housing costs for
many working families, Federal definitions of housing affordability don’t
recognize the strain of soaring transportation costs on homeowners and
renters who live in areas isolated from work opportunities and
transportation choices.
• The task force will redefine affordability to reflect those
interdependent costs. The task force will also continue to ensure that the
costs of living in certain geographic areas are transparent– using an
online tool that calculates the combined housing and transportation costs
families face when choosing a new home.
• Develop livability measures. The task force will research, evaluate and
recommend measures that indicate the livability of communities,
neighborhoods and metropolitan areas. These measures could be adopted in
subsequent integrated planning efforts to benchmark existing conditions
and identify progress toward achieving community visions. The task force
will develop incentives to encourage communities to implement, use and
publicize the measures.
• Harmonize HUD and DOT programs. HUD and DOT will work together to
identify opportunities to better coordinate their programs and encourage
location efficiency in housing and transportation choices. HUD and DOT
will also share information and review processes to facilitate
better-informed decisions and coordinate investments.
• Undertake joint research, data collection and outreach. HUD and DOT will
engage in joint research, data collection, and outreach efforts with
stakeholders, to develop information platforms and analytic tools to track
housing and transportation options and expenditures, establish
standardized and efficient performance measures, and identify best
practices. An interagency working group, led by DOT, is currently
developing performance metrics, research and data needs to support an
integrated regional planning framework. The working group was established
in June 2008 to identify opportunities to better align federal programs
and resources to reduce traffic congestion, increase transportation
mobility, improve air quality and realize other related environmental
benefits.
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