Wetland and Stream Compensatory Mitigation as a Funding Vehicle for US Public Housing Authorities

Rapidly sprawling development patterns in the United States have degraded aquatic resources and created affordable housing crises in urban cores. While public housing authorities (PHAs) combat urban affordable housing shortages, ecosystem service markets—such as the US Clean Water Act's wetland and stream compensatory mitigation program—concurrently seek to attenuate the environmental impacts of sprawling development. Using a case study of North Carolina's Durham Housing Authority, we explore how PHAs can leverage unused urban properties and wetland and stream mitigation programs as vehicles for funding their housing programs. Drawing on interviews with key stakeholders and literature and data on mitigation market operations, we employ geospatial, market, financial cost-benefit, and scenario analyses, identifying feasible, net-revenue-generating mitigation sites. We also identify several private-private and public-private partnership structures that could aid PHAs in implementing mitigation projects. Our findings suggest novel pathways for promoting environmental and housing improvements in America's central cities.