July 1, 2026
The Housing Solutions Lab has published a new Policy Insight, Strengthening local home repair systems: Lessons from 14 U.S. cities and counties, examining how cities across the country are rethinking local home repair programs to better preserve affordable homeownership, protect vulnerable households, and strengthen neighborhood stability.
The U.S. housing stock is aging and includes millions of homes in need of substantial repair. Yet for many lower-income homeowners – particularly those with children, older adults, and people with disabilities – accessing credit or home equity loans to finance repairs remains out of reach.
To help low-income homeowners meet unaddressed housing maintenance needs, which can pose serious health and financial risks for households, local governments and nonprofit partners have long operated home repair assistance programs.
Our work with cities shows that these programs face a common set of challenges: available funding falls far short of need and is often constrained by federal requirements; services are fragmented across multiple small programs and providers; cities lack the data and information needed to strategically target scarce resources and measure outcomes; and repair investments are not always integrated into broader housing preservation and community development strategies.
Our latest Policy Insight highlights how jurisdictions around the country are beginning to respond. Increasingly, local governments are addressing these challenges by diversifying funding, improving coordination and data capacity across stakeholders and programs, and more intentionally aligning home repair programs with local priorities, such as preserving affordable homeownership, preventing displacement, or supporting aging in place. Together, these approaches can help communities make more strategic use of limited resources and position home repair as an integral tool in advancing local housing goals.
Use our scan to inform your local repair strategy
Findings are drawn from existing literature and two years of insights from the Housing Solutions Lab’s Home Repair Community of Practice, which includes over 40 programs across 14 cities and counties. A guiding resource for cities, the scan distills critical program features – including funding models, eligibility and selection criteria, and partnership structures – designed to inform jurisdictions’ decision making to optimize existing initiatives or launch new programs.
Want to join the 2026 Home Repair Peer Network?
The Lab also seeks expressions of interest from cities working to strengthen local home repair programs for its third Home Repair Peer Network by July 24, 2026. Learn more about the opportunity here.
Want to learn more about emerging home repair strategies?
Join the Housing Solutions Lab on July 16 at 12 p.m. ET for Scaling Impact: Lessons from 14 Cities on Local Home Repair Programs, an hour-long webinar exploring key findings from our new Policy Insight and highlighting how cities are innovating to strengthen local home repair systems. Register for the webinar here.