Dive Brief:
- The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development is offering up to $3 million in grants for local governments to deploy automated permitting and building code systems.
- Cities can receive a maximum of $1.5 million in funding, with a minimum of $300,000. The deadline to apply is July 13.
- HUD will collaborate with state and local governments “to test new automated permitting tools that may increase the speed and lower the cost of permitting, with broader aims of promoting housing affordability.”
Dive Insight:
Housing supply is the number one issue for local governments, municipal leaders say.
As cities look to address the housing affordability crisis, more are overhauling their permitting processes with AI systems to improve efficiency and streamline more development.
President Donald Trump issued an executive order in March with mandates to reduce regulatory barriers to affordable housing construction, including slow permitting processes.
HUD last month also published a list of “regulatory best practices” for localities that included incorporating AI into construction permitting processes.
HUD said it will work closely with grant recipients to evaluate the impact of the AI permitting and building code tools to inform broader adoption. “While these systems are increasingly marketed to state and local governments, there is limited publicly available documentation of implementation experiences, staffing implications, and governance considerations,” HUD said.
The HUD funding would cover the initial three-year period of software licensing, as well as costs associated with salaries and expenses for staff to manage adoption and operation of the automated system, according to HUD.
Participating jurisdictions could deploy systems that assist with application intake, completeness checks, automated code screening and digital workflow management, the agency said, citing platforms such as PermitFlow, Blitz Permits, CivCheck and Permitify as examples.
