Housing Trust Fund

Purpose: Establish a pool of funds that would be allocated to local entities to meet the housing needs for very low-income, elderly, and special needs citizens.

In September 2006, the THDA Board of Directors voted to establish the Tennessee Housing Trust Fund. The four-level model for funding includes state appropriation, THDA funds, private sector investment, and matching funds from local grantees. The fund's corpus is designed to be spent.

	Initial Total	FY 08-09	Total
THDA	$12,000,000	$6,000,000	$18,000,000
State App.	4,000,000	350,000	4,350,000
Local Match	18,978,838	9,516,115	28,494,953
Totals	$34,978,838	$15,866,115	$50,844,953
Private Sector		$3,250,000

To be eligible for HTF grants, proposed projects have to:

1. Serve the targeted populations (very low income, very low income and elderly or very low income with special needs)
2. Match grant funds with new local funds
3. Extra consideration would be given for projects that use the funds as loans as opposed to grants (to create a local revolving fund for future use).
   

Program Uses:

Competitive Round: The HTF targets assistance to persons of very low income, those earning 50% or less of the area median income. The Competitive HTF grants support housing activities for households of very low income including the chronically homeless, persons with mental retardation or mental illness, citizens with developmental disabilities, single mothers recovering from substance addiction or physical abuse, veterans with multiple needs and ex-offenders re-entering society.

General Round: A set-aside within the trust fund is the Emergency Repair Fund. A total of $6 million dollars has been allocated to the state's nine development districts specifically to repair homes to keep them livable for elderly homeowners. United Cerebral Palsy has been working in partnership with THDA to construct ramps for persons with disabilities to allow access to their homes. Trust fund dollars are continuing this program. USDA / Rural Development has an established home repair fund, and grants from the HTF make those funds reach more homeowners. Basic home repair was the constantly repeated request when THDA and other housing funders visited with community leaders in all nine of Tennessee's development districts in the spring of 2007. City and County officials, especially in rural areas of the state, continue to express that need as our THDA's legislative liaison travels to meet with them to discuss affordable housing. With private sector funding, The Preserve Program begins to reach that need for households of moderate to low income. Other major uses of the HTF include new construction of homes, building ramps and other retro-fitting for disabled homeowners, rental assistance, and rehabilitation of multi-family housing.