Mayor Kim Driscoll announced in July a comprehensive effort to address housing insecurity in her community. Driscoll invested over $9 million of ARP funds toward affordable housing construction, grants to build accessory dwelling units, energy efficiency improvement projects at affordable housing complexes, and additional investments in the city’s Affordable Housing Trust Fund, including helping the trust purchase and preserve existing affordable units.

Roberts helped develop broad housing goals with fellow lawmakers in Colorado to utilize their ARP funds, specifically the legislature’s Affordable Housing Task Force recommendations to invest in a revolving loan fund, resident-owned communities, and related services. The Affordable Housing Task Force, chaired by Representative Dylan Roberts, successfully turned the task force’s recommendations into action over the summer and had five bills signed into law that will utilize a total of $428 million in ARP funds towards housing solutions.

Representative Roberts’ authored bill creates new grant programs and provides $178 million to help communities invest in affordable housing grant projects and related services and to sustainably develop vacant land. The other bills will encourage new investments in modular, prefabricated, and manufactured homes; expand finance and loan opportunities for affordable housing developers; and provide grants to local governments and nonprofits to buy land and develop affordable housing projects themselves.

Mayor Jon Mitchell announced in June more than $11.2 million in funding for new housing developments that will revitalize key sites and create nearly 150 new units. The five grant recipients will receive funds from the ARP-funded Housing Expansion Initiative, which supports large-scale housing projects that are shovel-ready and will directly assist in the creation of new units for people with household incomes at or below the area median income. The awards will support and leverage private investments to fill funding gaps and move the projects toward construction.

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Mayor Mitchell announced the five projects receiving ARP funds which will leverage over $70 million in development cost. The majority of the 149 new units will be income-restricted, for households and earners making various percentages of the area median income.

“These developments will energize neighborhoods and provide much-needed new units,” Mayor Jon Mitchell said. “When we announced the Housing Expansion Initiative, we asked for projects that were shovel-ready and already utilizing other funding sources, but just needed a bit more support to get over the top. Given the current pace of inflation and the intensifying demand for housing, we want to get funds out the door promptly.”

Thirty million dollars from the American Rescue Plan Act will go towards affordable housing opportunities in New Castle County, DE, County Executive Matt Meyer announced in late 2021. The ARP-funded programs will be modeled after the county’s HOME Investment Partnerships Program (HOME) program for building affordable housing. The funding will focus on both homeownership and affordable rental properties in unincorporated areas of the county. The county’s HOME program normally receives about $900,000 in federal housing aid each year. Meyer declared the 30-fold increase will “do all sorts of things to make life easier for renters, for people right on the cusp of homeownership, and potentially stuff for repairs to homes that would, if not for these resources, send people into homelessness.”

The investment comes as home prices in Delaware – and across the nation – have increased substantially over the past few years. Nationwide, home prices have soared as much as 19 percent, according to the Dallas Federal Reserve. In New Castle County, home prices increased by more than 13 percent from June 2020 to June 202. 

Meyer’s housing investment dovetails with efforts made by state and city officials. In October 2021, Gov. John Carney announced an investment of more than $24 million to complete 350 affordable homes in Wilmington within two years. Further, the City of Wilmington will invest $3.5 million to develop 278 rental units, which includes 20 ADA-accessible units.