RD Recent Obligations
Shawn Poynter / There Is More Work To Be Done
Shawn Poynter / There Is More Work To Be Done
The Housing Assistance Council (HAC) presents this month’s report on Fiscal Year 2017 USDA Rural Housing program obligations.
USDA is operating under a Continuing Resolution (CR) which provides funding through April 28, 2017 based on last year’s appropriation levels. Congress will need to pass a final appropriations bill or another CR to keep the government operating after the CR expires.
As of the end of February, USDA obligated 56,869 loans, loan guarantees, and grants totaling about $7.76 billion. This is about $1.19 billion more than obligation levels from the same time last year when there were 44,976 loans, loan guarantees, and grants obligated totaling about $6.0 billion.
The Section 502 Guaranteed loan program, the largest of the Single Family Housing programs, obligated $7.37 billion (51,519 loan guarantees) up from $5.68 billion (41,025 loan guarantees) at the same time last year.
For the Section 502 Direct program, there have been over $306.2 million (2,287 loans), also up from $283.2 million (2,163 loans) in loan obligations this time last year. Very low-income (VLI) loan obligations as a percentage of the total Section 502 Direct loan dollars was 38.3 percent, exceeding the 31.3 percent VLI obligation level at the same time last year.
The Section 504 Repair and Rehabilitation programs obligated 1,152 loans representing $6.2 million. As in the other single family housing programs, loan volume was up from this time last year (793 loans representing $4.4 million.) There were also $11.2 million (1,854 grants) obligated in the Section 504 grant program compared to $5.6 million (938 grants) at the same time last year.
So far this year, USDA obligated 4 Section 523 Self Help Housing Grants totaling $3.2 million and 4 contracts representing $1.5 million for a total of $4.7 million in Section 523 funding. There were also 3 credit sales of Single Family properties totaling $213,100.
USDA’s Section 538 Multifamily Housing obligated 21 loan guarantees totaling $42.4 million. In the Section 515 Rural Rental Housing program, there were 6 loans totaling $4.63 million obligated. There were also 13 MPR loans and 2 grants totaling $10.9 million and $53,200 respectively.
USDA obligated funds for 174,858 rental assistance units under the Section 521 Rental Assistance program totaling $792.9 million. This compares to about 180,219 units ($861.8 million) obligated same time last year. There were also 2,333 Rural Housing Vouchers totaling $9.0 million compared to 2,210 vouchers representing $8.3 million 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.