Building Affordable Housing Without Federal Dollars — Next City
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Building Affordable Housing Without Federal Dollars

March 11, 2026 · 36 min

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Four cities found real money for affordable housing without waiting on Washington.

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Building Affordable Housing Without Federal Dollars
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In this episode

  • How Pittsburgh, Atlanta, South Texas, and Seattle fund housing locally
  • Concrete alternatives to federal dollars for community housing projects
  • What locally-driven funding models actually look like in practice
  • A playbook for leaders navigating an unstable federal funding landscape

About this episode

One new reality many community leaders are dealing with: Federal funding is rocky, to say the least. So today, we're looking at affordable housing solutions that have located sources of funding outside of the federal goverment. We'll visit Pittsburgh, Atlanta, South Texas, and Seattle to learn about four locally-driven funding models for affordable housing.

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About Next City

Straw Hut Media

Join Lucas Grindley, executive director at Next City, where we believe journalists have the power to amplify solutions and spread workable ideas. Each week Lucas will sit down with trailblazers to discuss urban issues that get overlooked.

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