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Multifamily Housing Rental Assistance

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What does this program do?
This program provides payments to owners of USDA-financed Rural Rental Housing or Farm Labor Housing projects on behalf of low-income tenants unable to pay their full rent.

Who may apply for this program?

  • Project owners as part of their Rural Rental Housing or Farm Labor Housing new construction financing applications
  • Projects must be established on a nonprofit or limited profit basis

What is an eligible area?
Rental Assistance can only be provided for apartments in new or existing Rural Rental Housing and Farm Labor Housing financed properties.

How may funds be used?
Payments are made on behalf of the tenants and become part of the property’s income, which pays operational expenses

Who may receive assistance?
Properties with low- or very low-income (1) tenants qualify to receive assistance.  Properties with very low-income tenants receive first priority.

How do we get started?
Rental Assistance is coupled with an application for new construction financing under the Rural Rental Housing or Farm Labor Housing programs. For questions, contact your designated regional coordinator listed on the Contact tab.

Who can answer questions?
Find a regional contact on the Contact tab or you can find Rural Rental Properties.

What governs this program?

  • Code of Federal Regulation, 7 CFR 3560-Subpart F
  • This program is authorized by Title V of the Housing Act of 1949

NOTE: Because citations and other information may be subject to change please always consult the program instructions listed in the section above titled "What Law Governs this Program?" For questions, contact your designated regional director listed on the Contact tab.

(1) Very-low- and low-income: Very-low-income is below 50% of area median income; low-income is 50-80% of area median income.

Information on how to apply can be provided by a Rural Development specialist in your area. Contact information can be found on the contact tab.

There are no other additional requirements. 

On October 11, 2020 Rural Development’s Multifamily Housing Program finalized its structural realignment which, in some cases, redistributed the existing portfolio to a servicing Specialist within our new Field Operations Division. If you are looking for the servicing Specialist for a specific property, you will find a complete and sortable list here: https://www.sc.egov.usda.gov/data/MFH.html

Our Field Operations Division maintains local relationships through regionally organized servicing teams and handles all day-today servicing of Multifamily housing properties to ensure that tenants have safe and affordable housing. The four regions and the contact information for each Regional Director follows:

Western Region: Becki Meyer, Regional Director, MFHFODWest@usda.gov 
(AK, AZ, CA, CO, HI, ID, MT, NM, NV, OR, UT, WA, WY)
 
Southern Region: Byron Waters, Regional Director, MFHFODSouth@usda.gov
(AL, AR, FL, GA, KY, LA, MS, NC, OK, PR, SC, TN, TX, VI)
 
Midwest Region: Eric Siebens, Regional Director, MFHFODMidwest@usda.gov
(IA, IL, IN, KS, MI, MN, MO, ND, NE, OH, SD, WI)
 
Northeast Region: Donna O'Brien, Regional Director, MFHFODNortheast@usda.gov
(CT, DE, MA, MD, ME, NH, NJ, NY, PA, RI, VA, VT, WV)

If you need information on a loan transaction currently in process, or have questions on a new transaction, our Production & Preservation Division (PPD) processes, underwrites, and closes all multifamily direct, preservation, and guaranteed loan transactions. PPD will support all the Multifamily Housing Programs, including 515, 538, Multifamily Preservation and Revitalization (MPR), prepayments, and preservation efforts. This division will also oversee Notice of Solicitation of Applications (NOSA) drafting and administration efforts for Farm Labor Housing, Housing Preservation Grants, MPR, technical assistance, and 515. The email contact information for the Production & Preservation Division follows:

Processing and Report Review BranchMFHprocessing1@usda.gov
(CT, DE, IA, IL, IN, KS, MA, MD, ME, MI, MN, MO, ND, NE, NH, NJ, NY, OH, PA, RI, SD, VA, VT, WI, WV)

Processing and Report Review Branch 2
MFHprocessing2@usda.gov
(AK, AL, AR, AZ, CA, CO, FL, GA, HI, ID, KY, LA, MS, MT, NC, NM, NV, OK, OR, PR, SC, TN, TX, UT, VI, WA, WY)

Register for a Stakeholder Listening Session
Feedback from MFH stakeholders and industry partners is critical as the Agency prepares its report to Congress on ways to implement decoupling. To obtain feedback from a wide range of partners, Rural Development is conducting two in-person sessions and two virtual sessions in June and July.

In-Person Stakeholder Sessions
The in-person sessions will be held at conferences conducted by the National Council of State Housing Agencies (June 15) and the Council for Affordable and Rural Housing (June 27). For more information about registering for either of these conferences, please contact the conference sponsors:

2023 Housing Credit Connect — NCSHA
2023 Annual Meeting & Legislative Conference | CAR

Virtual Stakeholder Sessions
Rural Development held two virtual sessions open to all stakeholders. 

Virtual session #1: July 19, 2023
2:00 to 3:30 PM ET
MFH Decoupling Stakeholder Listening Session 

 

Virtual session #2: July 25, 2023
2:00 to 3:30 PM ET

 

Agency Accepting Stakeholder Comments on MFH Decoupling

In addition to providing feedback during the in-person or virtual sessions, stakeholders may provide written comments to the agency on MFH decoupling until July 31, 2023. Comments may be submitted to Decoupling@usda.gov.