USDA Information and Data
Shawn Poynter / There Is More Work To Be Done
Shawn Poynter / There Is More Work To Be Done
USDA Rural Development Obligations FY 21 – April
The Housing Assistance Council (HAC) presents this month’s report on Fiscal Year 2021 USDA Rural Housing program obligations.
As of the end of April, USDA obligated 83,295 loans, loan guarantees, and grants totaling about $14.3 billion. This is $2.2 billion higher than obligation levels from this time last year. At that time, there were 77,581 loans, loan guarantees, and grants obligated totaling $12.1 billion.
Federal agencies operated under a series of short-term continuing resolutions (CR) for most of the first quarter of FY 2021. A final CR was signed into law on December 27, 2020 which provides funding for the remainder of the fiscal year. Since March 20, 2020, USDA offices have been operating from remote locations due to the COVID-19 virus.
Single Family Housing Program Highlights
The Section 502 Guaranteed loan program, the largest of the Single Family Housing programs, obligated over $13.6 billion (77,364 loan guarantees) up from $11.3 billion (69,902 loan guarantees) this time last year.
For the Section 502 Direct program, loan obligations totaled $533.1 million (2,902 loans), about $24.5 million less than last year’s obligation level of $557.6 million (3,262 loans.) About 37 percent of the loan dollars went to Very Low-income (VLI) applicants. VLI loans represented over 43 percent of the total number of Section 502 Direct loans.
The Section 504 Repair and Rehabilitation programs obligated 1,119 loans representing $6.6 million. At this time last year, USDA obligated 1,509 Section 504 loans representing $9 million. The Section 504 grant program saw about $11.7 million (1,821 grants) obligated compared to $17.7 million (2,756 grants) at this time last year.
USDA’s Section 523 Self Help Housing Grant program funded 23 grants and contracts totaling $15,030,227 up from 12 grants and contracts totaling $13,069,195 a year ago.
Multi-Family Housing Programs
USDA’s Section 538 Multifamily Housing program obligated 48 loan guarantees totaling $129.0 million compared to last year’s 86 loan guarantees ($137.6 million.) No Section 515 Rural Rental Housing program have been funded so far this year, similar to last year at this time. There have been no MPR loans or grants obligated so far this year compared to 4 loans representing $143,438 at this time last year.
No Farm Labor Housing loans or grants have been funded so far this year. Last year at this time, 9 loans and 5 grants were obligated ($18.6 million and nearly $5.9 million respectively.)
USDA obligated funds for 125,050 rental assistance units under the Section 521 Rental Assistance program totaling $739.7 million. This compares to about 135,562 units ($782.6 million) obligated same time last year. There were also 4,511 Rural Housing Vouchers totaling $21.8 million compared to 4,680 vouchers representing $21.9 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.
