National Affordable Housing Trust Fund

The National Affordable Housing Trust Fund Act of 2007, HR 2895, lead by House Committee on Financial Services Chair Barney Frank (D-MA), passed the U.S. House of Representatives on October 10, 2007 by a strong bipartisan vote of 264-148. Similar legislation lead by Senators John Kerry (D-MA) and Olympia Snowe (R- ME) was introduced in the Senate on December 19. The goal of the Trust Fund is to construct, rehabilitate, and preserve 1.5 million units of housing over the next 10 years.

The Trust Fund could be used for construction, rehabilitation, acquisition, and preservation of rental or homeownership housing. Funds could also be used for up to 12 months of project-based rental assistance and for down payment and closing costs for first time homebuyers.

Funding from the Trust Fund would be distributed to local jurisdictions and states (60 percent) and Indian Tribes and insular areas (40 percent). Each state would receive at least 1 percent of overall funding.

Funds would be highly targeted to serving the lowest income households. All funding would be used for people below 80 percent of area median income (AMI). At least 75 percent would serve people below 30 percent of AMI, and at least 30 percent would have to serve people whose income would qualify them for SSI.

Any entity with experience and capacity to carry out the mission of the Trust Fund would be eligible to apply, including nonprofit, for profit, and faith based organizations.

National Housing Trust Fund Campaign Information
The National Housing Trust Fund Campaign is working to establish a National Housing Trust Fund with ongoing, permanent, dedicated and sufficient sources of revenue to build, rehabilitate and preserve 1.5 million units of housing for the lowest income families over the next 10 years. The National Housing Trust Fund website provides information, including answers to frequently asked questions, state-specific data on the need for affordable housing, and issue-specific fact sheets created by the National Low Income Housing Collation.

Latest News: On December 19, S. 2523, the National Affordable Housing Trust Fund Act of 2007, was introduced in the Senate—a companion bill to H.R. 2895 which passed the U.S. House of Representatives by a strong bipartisan vote last year. Senators John Kerry (D-MA) and Olympia Snowe (R-ME) were the lead sponsors on this legislation and Senators Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Pete Domenici (R-NM), Charles Schumer (D-NY), Susan Collins, (R-ME), Ted Kennedy (D-MA), and Jack Reed (D-RI) co-sponsored the bill at introduction. In an effort to move S. 2523 forward in the Senate as quickly as possible by demonstrating that it has strong bipartisan support, please ask your Senators, who have not yet done so, to co-sponsor S. 2523. For more information, see the Alliance’s Advocacy Update sent Thursday, February 27.