Federal programs & compliance
Housing Trust Fund (HTF)
The national Housing Trust Fund — state-administered capital for extremely low-income rental housing, 30-year affordability, regulations at 24 C.F.R. Part 93.
Definition
The Housing Trust Fund is a federal capital program funded by assessments on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and administered by the states. Its regulations at 24 C.F.R. Part 93 are modeled closely on the HOME framework at 24 C.F.R. Part 92 — soft-loan gap capital with rent and income limits, property standards and long covenants — but with far deeper targeting.
HTF is the extremely-low-income layer: at the funding levels seen to date, the statute steers the money to households at or below 30% of area median income (or the poverty line), with a 30-year minimum affordability period. The parent framework is the HOME Investment Partnerships Act family of programs.
Why it matters in an underwrite
HTF pays for the units nothing else can carry: 30%-AMI rents contribute almost no NOI, so the program's grants and soft loans are effectively the capital stack for those units. Underwrite them as near-zero-cash-flow with subsidy value, and price the tail — the 30-year covenant runs past the initial LIHTC compliance period, and Part 93 income certifications and property standards add compliance load that small operators usually buy from a specialized manager.
Sources & related guides
See also
See the term in the law itself
Read the controlling text in the Code Library, or ask the AI how it applies to your project.
Last reviewed 2026-07-29. General information, not legal advice.