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The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT), and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) have established a new partnership to help American families in all communities –- rural, suburban and urban -- gain better access to affordable housing, more transportation options, and lower transportation costs. This partnership supports better coordination across the three agencies to meet national housing and transportation goals, while also protecting the environment, promoting equitable development, and helping to address the challenges of climate change.
It also sets forth six guiding livability principles that the three agencies will use to coordinate federal transportation, environmental protection, and housing investments at their respective agencies:
- Provide more transportation choices.
Develop safe, reliable and economical transportation choices to decrease household transportation costs, reduce our nation’s dependence on foreign oil, improve air quality, reduce greenhouse gas emissions and promote public health.
- Promote equitable, affordable housing.
Expand location- and energy-efficient housing choices for people of all ages, incomes, races and ethnicities to increase mobility and lower the combined cost of housing and transportation.
- Enhance economic competitiveness.
Improve economic competitiveness through reliable and timely access to employment centers, educational opportunities, services and other basic needs by workers as well as expanded business access to markets.
- Support existing communities.
Target federal funding toward existing communities -- through such strategies as transit-oriented, mixed-use development and land recycling -- to increase community revitalization, improve the efficiency of public works investments, and safeguard rural landscapes.
- Coordinate policies and leverage investment.
Align federal policies and funding to remove barriers to collaboration, leverage funding and increase the accountability and effectiveness of all levels of government to plan for future growth, including making smart energy choices such as locally generated renewable energy.
- Value communities and neighborhoods.
Enhance the unique characteristics of all communities by investing in healthy, safe and walkable neighborhoods – rural, urban or suburban.
Smart Growth Network partners have issued statements of support for the initiative.
For more information on this new partnership, its goals and how it supports local, state and metropolitan efforts to create sustainable communities visit www.epa.gov/opei/ocmp/dced-partnership.html.
Visit the Development, Community and Environment Division (DCED), home to EPA's Smart Growth program, at the resource link below.
Resource(s): http://www.epa.gov/opei/ocmp/dced.html
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