Billionaire Michael Bloomberg funds housing in 14 US cities

American billionaire Michael Bloomberg’s charitable foundation has picked 14 US cities to receive $450,000 to $750,000 each to copy housing policies that have sped up home building in San Diego, Austin and Atlanta.

Bloomberg Philanthropies said the first group includes Albuquerque, New Mexico; Alexandria, Virginia; Charleston and Columbia in South Carolina; Chattanooga and Nashville in Tennessee; Cleveland; Durham, North Carolina; Louisville, Kentucky; Miami; Omaha, Nebraska; Pittsburgh; Providence, Rhode Island; and San Jose, California. The program will eventually cover up to 30 city halls, with about 10 working on each of the three models.

“City halls are taking local action to increase the housing supply and ease the shortage that is driving up rents,” said Bloomberg, the founder of financial data company Bloomberg LP and a former mayor of New York.

The foundation announced the program on Oct. 15 with 15 cities. It removed Portland, Maine, from the list a day later, saying the city would not take part for now. The foundation did not give a total cost for the initiative.

Three models

Each city will adopt one or more of three approaches. The first comes from San Diego, where an executive order set a 30-day limit on approving housing permits. The number of homes cleared for construction rose 82% the following year, the most since 2005, and about 8,800 homes were permitted. San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria said reviews now take nine days on average.

The second is Austin’s push for accessory dwelling units, the small second homes built in backyards or garages. The Texas capital now allows up to three homes on most single-family lots and cut the minimum lot size from 5,750 square feet to 1,800. About 120,000 homes have been built there since 2015, and rents have fallen since the pandemic, one of the few large US markets where that has happened.

The third is Atlanta’s housing “strike force,” which put the heads of city agencies under a single chief housing officer to restart stalled projects. The city says it has restarted more than 2,000 affordable units, and more than 14,000 affordable homes are built or under way toward a goal of 20,000.

“The most effective way to get homes built is to bring every agency and organization with a hand in housing together,” Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens said.

Faster permits within two years

The grants will pay for technology to speed up approvals, staff for strike teams and architects to draw up ready-to-use permit plans. Accelerator for America, a nonprofit that works with mayors, and Public Digital, a consultancy, will provide support on the ground. Within two years, the foundation expects the cities to cut approval times in half, double the number of accessory dwelling units in the pipeline and show an increase in housing supply.

“Housing is issue number one for America’s mayors,” said Miami Mayor Eileen Higgins. Matt Mahan, the mayor of San Jose, said that “if we’ve already zoned a parcel for housing, it shouldn’t take a year or more to get permission to build.”

Bloomberg, 84, built his fortune from the Bloomberg terminal, the data and news system used by traders and bankers around the world. He served three terms as mayor of New York from 2002 to 2013 and ran for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2020. Bloomberg Philanthropies, which funds work on public health, climate, education and city government, gave away $4.3 billion in 2025.