Support and Strengthen the Use of Federal Funds

• Rental Assistance. To help very low-income families obtain decent, safe and sanitary rental housing, the Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher Program provides direct grants, administered by local housing authorities, to cover the difference between 30 percent of an eligible tenant's income and the fair market rent calculated by HUD.  Local housing authorities administer Section 8 vouchers.  
• Homeownership. The Section 8 Homeownership Program helps first-time homebuyers who have a HUD Section 8 voucher meet monthly mortgage and other homeownership expenses.  Program participants must attend homeownership and housing counseling classes in order to receive vouchers, through their local housing authorities, to support the purchase of a first home, mortgage principal and interest, real estate taxes, homeownership insurance and housing maintenance.  Many local housing authorities do not participate in the program.  Annually, the HOME Program allocates approximately $2 billion in formula grants to states and localities for use in building, buying and rehabilitating affordable housing for rent or homeownership, as well as for providing direct rental assistance to low-income individuals.  Jurisdictions must match every dollar of HOME funds with 25 cents of donated property or other resources, and they must ensure that HOME-funded housing units remain affordable for a minimum number of years.  HOME funds can be used in conjunction with the CDBG and the American Dream Down Payment Initiative, which helps minority and lower-income first-time homebuyers deal with down payment and closing costs.

• Community Development. One of the longest continuously run programs at HUD, the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) program provides grants on a formula basis to benefit low- and moderate-income individuals, prevent or eliminate “slums” and address urgent community development needs, including affordable housing.  CDBG Entitlement Grants are designed to help develop urban communities primarily through infrastructural improvements that promote communities’ economic development, energy conservation, provision of improved community facilities and services and acquisition of real property.  The CDBG States’ Program is designed for the same goals but focuses on developing smaller communities and rural areas.
• Abandoned Properties. Neighborhood Stabilization Program Grants stabilize communities by allowing for the purchase and redevelopment of foreclosed and abandoned homes and residential properties. Every state received minimum distributions of NSP1 and NSP3 grants for use in stabilizing neighborhoods affected by foreclosures.  States can use these funds to support local grantees or in smaller and/or rural communities.  NSP1 and NSP3 both require that at least 25% of the funds support affordable housing for families at or below 50% of the area median income.  Additionally, NSP3 requires that grantees create a preference for affordable rental housing.
• Livability. Sustainable Communities is a new federal funding program aimed at integrating transportation and housing planning in order to increase state, regional and local capacity to incorporate livability, sustainability and social equity values into land use plans and zoning.  The Capital Regional Council of Governments of Hartford, Connecticut, received a 2010 Sustainable Communities Regional Planning Grant to create a foundation of opportunity—in housing, education, transportation, employment, nutrition and community resources—in the region through the Knowledge Corridor Consortium. The consortium will integrate existing regional plans; create energy-efficient, mixed-use affordable housing opportunities near transit and jobs and establish innovative new efforts, such as affordable housing training for zoning commissioners and incentives for density creation in transit-rich locations.[1]
• Rural Housing. There are several funding sources to support rural affordable housing. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) provides funding for affordable homes in rural areas through the Rural Housing Service.  These programs include: The Farm Labor Housing Loan and Grant program, the Section 515 program, the Rural Rental Assistance Program (Section 521), the Section 538 Guaranteed Rural Rental Housing Program, Mutual Self-Help Technical Assistance Grants, the Section 502 program and Very Low-Income Housing Repair Loans and Grants.
• Financial Counseling. The Federal Housing Counseling Program enables anyone who wants to (or already does) rent or own housing—whether through a HUD program, a Veterans Affairs program, other federal programs, a state or local program or the private market—to get the counseling they need to make their rent or mortgage payments and to be a responsible tenant or owner in other ways. The counseling is provided by HUD-approved housing counseling agencies, such as Neighbor to Neighbor, non-profit organization and program grantee that provides housing counseling services to residents.
• Economic Independence .   The Family Self Sufficiency Program is a HUD program that encourages communities to develop local strategies to help voucher families obtain employment that will lead to economic independence and self-sufficiency. Public housing agencies (PHAs) work with welfare agencies, schools, businesses, and other local partners to develop a comprehensive program that gives participating FSS family members the skills and experience to enable them to obtain employment that pays a living wage. A separate program, the public housing FSS program, is available for public housing residents. An interest-bearing escrow account is established for each participating family, with contributions based on increases in earned income of the family funded by the federal grant. If the family completes the contract the escrow account is paid to the head of the family. Several states, for example Alaska, take the lead in coordinating FSS, which often requires a partnership between the state  human services agency and the housing agency or authority.

 Assets for Independence (AFI) enables community-based nonprofits and government agencies to implement and demonstrate an assets-based approach for giving low-income families a hand up out of poverty. AFI projects help participants save earned income in special-purpose, matched savings accounts called Individual Development Accounts (IDAs). Every dollar in savings deposited into an IDA by participants is matched (from $1 to $8 combined federal and nonfederal funds) by the AFI project, promoting savings and enabling participants to acquire lasting assets. AFI project families use their IDA savings, including the matching funds, to achieve any of three objectives: acquiring a first home, capitalizing a small business or enrolling in postsecondary education or training.