Strategic Growth Council Factory Built Housing Pilot Program Round 3 Catalyst Grant

Purpose

The Factory-Built Housing (FBH) Program is designed to support regional strategies that use factory-built housing to expand the supply of affordable, high-quality homes across California. The goal is to create solutions that can be scaled and replicated to move beyond one-off development projects to broader, long-term impact.

Description

The FBH Program is funded by a $12,000,000 allocation from the Affordable Housing and Sustainable Communities (AHSC) Program to fund two grant types -- Catalyst Grants and Planning Grants. Public Relations Code Section 75210 created the AHSC Program to “implement land use, housing, transportation, and agricultural land preservation practices to support infill and compact development, and that support related and coordinated public policy objectives.” The AHSC Program receives its funding from California’s Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund (GGRF), which is administered in California by the California Climate Investments (CCI) Program. The FBH Program will provide Catalyst Grants of up to $500,000 over a two-year term to help Grantees launch or advance early-stage efforts that build regional knowledge, capacity, networks, and stakeholder support for the production and deployment of factory-built housing in California.Catalyst Grants are ideal for applicants in the early stages of partnership formation, research and analysis, or stakeholder engagement who wish to establish or grow relationships and networks among regional partners, increase regional understanding of factory-built housing solutions and benefits, and/or identify enabling conditions for advancing factory-built housing as an affordable housing solution in their region. Catalyst Grants may fund activities such as:• Conducting research on regulatory, zoning, or land use barriers to factory-built housing production.• Completing market studies to assess regional demand and housing needs.• Identifying and convening public, private, and community stakeholders to form cross-jurisdictional coalitions.• Hosting peer learning exchanges or regional dialogues on factory-built housing opportunities, challenges, and strategies.• Developing preliminary plans, frameworks, or roadmaps to inform future factory-built housing projects and policies. Catalyst projects are expected to result in increased regional capacity, collaboration, and stakeholder support for factory-built housing as a viable affordable housing strategy. Projects should also produce or promote innovative, scalable, and/or replicable strategies for removing barriers to factory-built housing expansion and integrating factory-built housing into local and regional housing plans.