USDA Information and Data

USDA Rural Development Obligations FY 20 – January

The Housing Assistance Council (HAC) presents this month’s report on Fiscal Year 2020 USDA Rural Housing program obligations.

As of the end of January, USDA obligated 43,467 loans, loan guarantees, and grants totaling about $6,685,869,698. This is $3,029,686,464 more than obligation levels from this time last year. At that time, there were 27,902 loans, loan guarantees, and grants obligated totaling $3,656,183,234.

The agency operated under several continuing resolutions and a 35-day government shutdown last year and obligations have come back to a more normal level in FY 2020. The FY 2020 Consolidated Appropriations Act was signed into law on December 20, 2019 which provided funding for the rest of this fiscal year.

Single Family Housing Program Highlights

The Section 502 Guaranteed loan program, the largest of the Single Family Housing programs, obligated $6,327,431,982 (39,521 loan guarantees) down from $3,454,467,100 ( 24,212 loan guarantees) last year.

For the Section 502 Direct program, loan obligations totaled $284,675,985 (1,684 loans), down from $136,719,298 ( 884 loans) this time last year. About 41 percent of the loan dollars went to Very low-income (VLI) applicants. VLI loans represented nearly 46 percent of the total number of Section 502 Direct loans.

The Section 504 Repair and Rehabilitation programs obligated 785 loans representing $4,693,566. Loan volume was up from this time last year ( 513 loans representing $3,030,230.) There were also about $9,028,020 ( 785 grants) obligated in the Section 504 grant program compared to $3,929,482 ( 657 grants) last year.

USDA’s Section 523 Self Help Housing Grant program funded 2 grants and contracts totaling $1,870,512 up from last year’s 2 grants and contracts totaling $975,000.

USDA funded 2 credit sales representing $247,120.

Multi-Family Housing Programs

USDA’s Section 538 Multifamily Housing obligated 26 loan guarantees totaling $39,448,658, down from last year’s 34 loan guarantees ($47,147,737.) In the Section 515 Rural Rental Housing program, there were 0 loans totaling $0 (including disaster assistance) obligated compared to 2 loans totaling $2,877,000 last year. Obligations in the MPR program include 0 MPR loans totaling $0 and 3 grants totaling $988,934 compared to 0 loans and 0 grants representing $0 and $0 last year.

The Farm Labor Housing programs funded 7 loans and 5 grants totaling $12,620,000 and $5,853,855 respectively. Last year, 0 loans and 0 grants were obligated ($0 and $0, respectively.)

There were 0 Section 533 Housing Preservation grants totaling $0 have been obligated so far this year, compared to 0 grants last year totaling $0.

USDA obligated funds for 46,402 rental assistance units under the Section 521 Rental Assistance program totaling $273,194,031. This compares to about 21,914 units ($99,595,161) obligated same time last year. There were also 1,054 Rural Housing Vouchers totaling $5,606,238 compared to 1,596 vouchers representing $6,879,602 this time last year.

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* The Rural Housing Service (RHS) monthly obligation reports are produced by the Housing Assistance Council (HAC) 1025 Vermont Ave., NW, Suite 606, Washington, DC 20005. The monthly figures derive from HAC tabulations of USDA –RHS 205c, d, and f report data. For questions or comments about the obligation reports, please contact Michael Feinberg at 202-842-8600 or michael@ruralhome.org.