National Housing Trust Fund

A member of the team working on Affordable Housing for VOICE notes that the American Housing Rescue and Foreclosure Prevention Act of 2008 signed into law on July 30th (Public Law 110-289) has a provision that creates a National Housing Trust Fund. As described in an article by the National Low Income Housing Coalition (www.nlihc.org/detail/article.cfm?article_id=5393):

• This new law provides funding for those who have extremely low or very low income to secure affordable housing.


• The Trust Fund has a dedicated source of funding from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac based on a percentage of each company's annual new business.


• This funding is not subject to the annual appropriations process.


• Funding for the Trust Fund starts in FY10 when, hopefully, the current mortgage crisis is over and Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have stabilized.

This is a good start, but makes the on-going work of VOICE even more important since this new National Housing Trust Fund needs a strong VOICE to support it and ensure that its implementation does not get quietly get diverted over the next few years. (If anything, it's roll-out should be expedited given the current housing situation!)

VOICE also needs to make sure that Virginia and our respective counties get a reasonable share of the funding from the Trust Fund. As always, our VOICE for affordable housing needs to be strong and consistent.