Amid growing calls in San Antonio to make affordable housing a key component of the city’s continuing urban core revival and Mayor Ivy Taylor’s much-anticipated SA Tomorrow plan, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julián Castro on Monday announced a $174 million grant to the newly launched National Housing Trust Fund.
The trust fund will allow states to apply for affordable housing grants beginning later this spring, with funds flowing to the states by summer. The trust fund is a new affordable housing production program that will be administered by HUD that is intended to augment current programs and efforts to preserve the inventory of quality affordable housing for the lowest income families in the community and expand the housing options available to homeless individuals and families.
HUD funding for the trust fund will come from the government sponsored enterprises Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
“This is an exciting new tool to help states across the country to produce more critically needed affordable housing,” Castro said. “The National Housing Trust Fund will play an important role in creating new opportunities for those who are most in need to secure a safe, decent and affordable home they can call their own.”
The National Housing Trust Fund until now has been a federal government initiative that existed only on paper. Congressional authorization occurred eight years ago during the housing crises that helped trigger the Great Recession, but the legislation, the 2008 Housing and Economic Recovery Act (HERA), did not include any funding for the trust fund. In December 2014, the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) directed Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to begin setting aside and allocating funds to the Housing Trust. In January 2015, HUD released guidelines for states seeking housing trust funds and how to allocate those funds.
The Rivard Report has asked the City of San Antonio and the San Antonio Housing Authority to provide additional information regarding any opportunities for San Antonio to request and receive housing trust funds via the state.
Top image: U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development Secretary Julián Castro announces the formation of the National Housing Trust Fund. Image via HUD.
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