On December 11, 2014, Federal Housing Finance Agency director Mel Watt instructed Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to begin setting aside funds for the National Housing Trust Fund and Capital Magnet Fund. The NHTF will fund housing, mostly rental and mostly for extremely low-income households (those with incomes under 30 percent of area medians). The CMF provides funds to Community Development Financial Institutions and nonprofits to finance affordable housing and related economic development and community service facilities.

FHFA’s statement on its action reads in part:

FHFA today directed Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to begin setting aside and allocating funds to the Housing Trust Fund and the Capital Magnet Fund pursuant to the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008 (HERA). HERA authorized FHFA to temporarily suspend these allocations, and FHFA informed Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac of a temporary suspension on November 13, 2008. In letters sent today . . . , FHFA notified Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac of the agency’s decision to reverse the temporary suspension.

Separately, FHFA sent to the Federal Register an Interim Final Rule to address the statutory requirement that the allocations may not result in transferring their expense to originators or other Enterprise counterparties. The Interim Final rule is effective upon publication and has a 30-day comment period.

The allocations must be made starting in 2015, so long as Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac do not need to rely on federal government funding for their operations.

HUD, which will operate the NHTF program, issued proposed regulations for the program in October 2010, but has not yet produced final regulations.

UPDATE, December 11, 1:00 pm ET – HUD Secretary Julian Castro released a statement supporting the release of funds for the NHTF, and said HUD will issue regulations “soon.”