Saudi Arabia’s NEOM megaproject, encompassing the Oxagon, Sindalah, and the 110-mile-long The Line, has shown significant progress in new updates released this week. 

Aerial photos and drone footage displayed on NEOM’s social media accounts highlight ongoing construction, countering skeptics of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's ambitious $500 billion vision.

Future Cities: Recent updates follow previous video releases from January and October 2023, and since then, additional developments such as Leyja, Epicon, Aquellum, and Siranna have been announced. 

The first construction phases are expected to be completed by 2030, with British firm Atkins overseeing the delivery of The Line, the project’s largest and most technically challenging component.

• Approximately 60,000 workers are currently on site, with the Saudi state spending $5.6 billion on temporary housing for workers across all locations. 
• Bechtel is also involved, delivering the base infrastructure plan for NEOM. 
• The entire project, covering 10,200 square miles and aiming to house nine million residents, is scheduled for completion by 2045.

More updates from NEOM are expected as the ambitious plan continues to unfold.

The White House has unveiled a series of initiatives aimed at boosting the production of manufactured housing in the United States. These measures are designed to preserve and rehabilitate existing manufactured home communities while easing barriers to the construction of new units.

Government Policy: The initiatives include a $225 million funding opportunity for existing communities, managed by HUD. This program, called the Preservation and Reinvestment Initiative for Community Enhancement (PRICE), will support the preservation and revitalization of manufactured housing communities. The funds will be used to replace dilapidated homes, assist with repairs and upgrades, and improve infrastructure such as stormwater systems.

Affordability: To counter the growing trend of corporate investors buying manufactured housing at the expense of longtime residents, the White House is also developing a Mortgagee Letter. 

This new program aims to preserve affordability for existing residents of manufactured housing communities by providing enhanced access to loans for resident cooperatives and other mission-oriented borrowers to acquire or refinance communities.

• $225 million: Funding opportunity for preserving and revitalizing existing manufactured home communities.

• 20 million Americans: Currently live in manufactured housing, making it the largest form of unsubsidized affordable housing in the country.

• New program: To preserve affordability for residents of manufactured housing communities through enhanced loan access.

• Increased loan limits: For Title I Manufactured Housing programs to better serve low- and moderate-income and first-time buyers.

"Manufactured housing is a critical source of affordable housing, especially for low-income, rural, and Native American households, and offers a potentially lower-cost pathway to homeownership," stated the White House. "Manufactured housing provides an essential path to increasing overall housing supply and offers significant savings over site-built housing."

The latest National Climate Assessment highlights that the U.S. is warming faster than the rest of the world due to human-induced climate change, missing critical climate goals. This report emphasizes social justice, linking greenhouse gas reductions to reducing racial disparities, as climate impacts disproportionately affect communities of color and low-income areas.

Urban Tech: To address these harms, policymakers must consider the environmental impacts of emerging technologies like artificial intelligence (AI). The industrial shift AI is driving could distribute societal benefits unequally, much like previous technologies, worsening environmental burdens for marginalized communities.

• AI's environmental footprint is significant. Research indicates a single generative AI query consumes four to five times the energy of a typical search engine request.

• The training of large AI models like GPT-3 produced 500 metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions

• This is equivalent to driving a conventional vehicle for 1 million miles.

These impacts are compounded by AI's increasing demand for land and water, straining resources in already vulnerable regions.

Justice is crucial to effective climate policy. Historical policy inaction has disproportionately affected marginalized communities, making environmental protections and benefits essential for all. Robust climate governance must include measures to mitigate AI's environmental harms and ensure equitable distribution of benefits.

Seven lucky residents in Newark, New Jersey, won big in January by purchasing city-owned properties for just $1 each. However, these homes require significant repairs or construction, and buyers must pay for these improvements, supported by low-interest-rate mortgages.

This initiative is part of Newark’s effort to increase local homeownership and combat neighborhood blight. Mayor Ras Baraka promotes the $1-home program as a way to close wealth gaps and prevent corporate investors from buying homes and raising rents.

Newark’s homeownership rate is only 29.6%, far below New Jersey’s 64.6% and the national average of 65.2%.

Urban View: Bruce Marks, CEO and founder of the Neighborhood Assistance Corp. of America (NACA), partnered with Newark on this initiative. “We’re talking about neighborhood stabilization on a large scale,” Marks said. NACA provides low-interest mortgages to help buyers cover the costs of repairing or building homes, without considering credit scores or requiring down payments.

• To participate, buyers must have lived in Newark for at least five consecutive years, cannot be current homeowners, and must live in the purchased home for at least 10 years.

• Prospective buyers also need to be pre-approved for a NACA mortgage and complete home-buying counseling.

• The first lottery draw in January saw seven winners, with more draws planned.

Tram Hoang from PolicyLink emphasized that the program should also include tenant protections for renters, especially as many of these homes are intended to be multifamily properties. Additional protections could include tenant screening limitations and rent stabilization.

Newark isn’t the first city to experiment with selling $1 properties. Similar programs in Chicago and Baltimore aimed to address blight and support local homeownership. NACA plans to expand such initiatives to other cities, with thousands of homes potentially available in places like Lima, Ohio, and Selma, Alabama.