Government Performance Lab announces new State Housing Production Accelerator to help local communities meet state housing production goals 

The Harvard Kennedy School Government Performance Lab (GPL) announced the launch of a new program to build durable state capacity to help local governments meet ambitious housing goals. Working with a cohort of state participants, the State Housing Production Accelerator will address common challenges faced by local communities as they interpret and apply state legislation to enable faster, more expansive housing production in response to ongoing housing shortages. 

The Accelerator will help state leaders create replicable and scalable solutions for key challenges to increasing housing production in their communities, including fragmented and slow development processes, limited state capacity to provide hands-on technical assistance to localities, uneven uptake of recent housing reforms, and a lack of shared, field-tested tools that work across different markets.  

States interested in the program are invited to complete an expression of interest form and participate in an interview with GPL staff over the summer of 2026. 

“Pro-housing legislation is essential, but it’s not enough on its own. State and local governments need practical support to identify what works, strengthen implementation, and quickly scale those solutions so more people can access stable, affordable homes,” said Carin Clary, Director of Homelessness & Housing at GPL. 

Through the Accelerator, participants will receive direct technical support, structured learning and problem-solving sessions, peer networks across states, and support for designing and implementing projects with local partners — all with the goal of translating policy into the on-the-ground housing production.

The program will launch with a four-state cohort in its inaugural year with plans to increase in program size the following year. States not able to join the cohort but interested in participating are invited to join the Community of Practice to benefit from ongoing program findings.