The Department of the Treasury announced "new guidance" to "increase the ability of state, local, and tribal governments to use American Rescue Plan (ARP) funds to boost the supply of affordable housing in their communities."

The move is part of the Biden administration's "housing supply action plan to help close the housing supply gap in five years." The first part starts "with the creation and preservation of hundreds of thousands of affordable housing units in the next three years." The White House says that closing the gap "will mean more affordable rents and more attainable homeownership for Americans in every community."

The Treasury noted that it had "encouraged" state and local governments to put some of the $350 billion they could receive under the State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds (SLFRF) toward development and upkeep of affordable housing units. As experts have told GlobeSt.com on repeated occasions, the continuing obsolescence of older, more affordable housing stock makes it more difficult to close the housing gap.