Counties for Housing Solutions

Author

Patrick Spence

Program Manager, Economic Mobility

Sections

NACo’s Counties for Housing Solutions (C4HS) program highlights the critical role counties play in expanding housing supply and reducing development costs. Enabling access to affordable housing helps to increase upward economic mobility and to move county residents out of poverty. Specifically, affordable housing provides:

Stability in a secure living environment that helps people maintain jobs and education
Financial Flexibility when lower housing costs free up income for essentials like education, childcare and savings
Opportunity Access so that families can live in areas with better schools, jobs and services
Health Benefits by improving physical and mental wellbeing
Workforce Support when located near jobs and thereby boosting employee retention and productivity
Generational Impact because children in stable homes are more likely to achieve upward economic mobility in their lifetime

County Role in Housing Affordability

Counties are uniquely positioned to facilitate housing growth. NACo has supported counties to increase housing supply through two strategies:

Zoning and Permitting Authority: Counties that control both zoning and permitting can accelerate or encourage the production of new housing through streamlining processes and setting incentives.
County-Owned Land Development: Public-private partnerships can lead to increased housing supply when leveraging underutilized county-owned sites, such as parking lots, former schools and libraries, large open spaces, vacant office complexes and leftover parcels from transportation projects. This can:
1. Generate revenue to provide county services
2. Secure public benefits without taxpayer expense by selling land to developers below market rate with a negotiated community benefits agreement
3. Create “natural affordability” by reducing land costs in the housing development process

Tools such as NACo’s Housing Solutions Matchmaker Tool and recommendations made by NACo’s 2023 Housing Task Force also support county efforts to meet increased demand for housing.

NACo’s Counties for Housing Solutions Program

In 2024, NACo launched an intensive learning program to help counties implement strategies to increase their local housing supply. In partnership with Smart Growth America, NACo provides weekly virtual workshops and individualized coaching sessions for over three months to application-based cohorts of counties on key strategies to address housing affordability. Fifteen counties in the first two cohorts learned to identify opportunities and strategies for developing publicly-owned land. See highlights of outcomes from these counties below.

This current cohort of eight counties is focused on learning steps for zoning modernization to increase housing production:

Big Horn County, Mont.
Greenbrier County, W.Va.
Miami-Dade County, Fla.
Montgomery County, Md.
Rice County, Minn.
St. Tammany Parish, La.
San Joaquin County, Calif.
Taos County, N.M.

The Fall 2024 cohort included:

Guilford County, N.C.
Harris County, Texas
Hidalgo County, Texas
Jackson County, Mo.
Salt Lake County, Utah
Shelby County, Tenn.

The Spring 2025 cohort included:

Baltimore City, Md.
Cheshire, Grafton and Sullivan Counties, N.H.
Chesterfield County, Va.
Genesee County, Mich.
City and County of Honolulu, Hawaii
Mecklenburg County, N.C.
Pierce County, Wash.

Highlights of County Outcomes

NACo supported 15 county teams during two cohorts in Fall 2024 and Spring 2025, each focused on developing county-owned land. Selected results as of September 2025 include:

Baltimore City, Md. has reached a tentative agreement with a local developer to consolidate and transfer site control of a vacant block in a high-need neighborhood near the Johns Hopkins Hospital. Developers have met with funders including JPMorgan Chase and Bloomberg Philanthropies to secure capital for the development of a 100-unit apartment building, with 50 units set aside as permanently affordable housing.
Chesterfield County, Va. is in negotiations with a developer to build more than 500 units of mixed-income housing on a greenfield county-owned site in Midlothian. The county expects to transfer site ownership and break ground to construct a mix of apartments, townhomes and single-family homes on the site within 12 months.
Harris County, Texas is in the planning stage for a large-scale mixed-use district that will include more than 6,000 housing units, with about 1,200 of those designated as affordable. Harris County has also issued three solicitations to develop smaller county-owned sites since the start of 2025.
Hidalgo County, Texas has authorized the creation of a Tax Increment Reinvestment Zone (TIRZ), which uses the targeted area’s future increases in property tax revenue for zone infrastructure improvements. This TIRZ will help finance the development of 525 housing units. These units will maintain affordability for at least 30 years, ensuring long-term community benefit.
City and County of Honolulu, Hawaii is finalizing development of a solicitation to authorize development of 480 rental apartments spread across three towers on surplus land left after completion of the Pearlridge Skyline metro rail station development. This project will provide family-sized workforce housing for median-income households. Honolulu County is also working on a partnership with the State of Hawaii to transfer dozens of acres of state land near Waikiki for the future development of over 5,000 apartments.
Jackson County, Mo. is investing in site preparation for surplus land located near Kauffman Stadium. The goal is to convert this underutilized space into new housing opportunities that support local economic development. Separately, the county is working on a plan to develop county-owned sites closer to downtown Kansas City.
Mecklenburg County, N.C. is working with community stakeholders to redevelop a former elementary school to add at least 600 homes on six acres.
Pierce County, Wash. will soon solicit developers for a 60-unit site on unincorporated land, with at least 12 permanently affordable units that may be available for homeownership. The county anticipates construction to begin within 12 to 18 months. The county is also considering redeveloping three downtown Tacoma parking lots into high-rise housing as part of a broader real estate portfolio restructuring.
Shelby County, Tenn. has passed a new ordinance that enables the county to partner with the City of Memphis to revitalize public land for housing. This collaboration is expected to streamline development and expand housing access.

About Counties for Economic Mobility

Counties for Housing Solutions (C4HS) is part of Counties for Economic Mobility (C4EM), a NACo initiative for county leaders to advance equitable upward economic mobility to move individuals and families out of poverty. C4EM supports a range of activities to drive data-driven and community-informed policymaking in county government. In addition to C4HS, C4EM programs are:

NACo Housing Resources and Tools

Housing Solutions Matchmaker Tool identifies affordability and supply challenges for individual counties and offers data-informed guidance on potential policy solutions
2023 Housing Task Force analyzes the housing affordability crisis and lists county best practices and policy recommendations
Housing Affordability for America's Counties explains how counties can address housing affordability, with a series of reports on:
- The Role of Counties
- The Federal-County Intergovernmental Nexus
- Finance, Lending and County Tax Policy
- Land Use, Zoning, Infrastructure and Community Planning
- Community Engagement, Education and Partnerships
- Regulations, Codes and Fees