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1 How the Housing Trust Fund and Capital Magnet Fund Support Affordable Housing 1 (November 21, 2022)

handle is hein.congrec/hwthsgts0001 and id is 1 raw text is: he Housing Trust Fund (HTF), managed
by the Department of Housing and Urban
Development (HUD), and the Capital Magnet
Fund (CMF), managed by the Department of
the Treasury, provide grants to increase and preserve the
supply of affordable rental housing and to increase home-
ownership for low-income households. The funds are
financed through fees paid by Fannie Mae and Freddie
Mac, two government-sponsored enterprises (GSEs), on
new mortgage guarantees that they make.
The Funds' Receipts and Grants. By the end of
2021, payments to the funds since their inception
totaled $2.7 billion for the HTF and $1.5 billion
for the CMF. In fiscal year 2021, grants of about
$690 million were allocated from the HTF and
grants of $336 million were awarded from the CMF.
Only a small portion of those grants was disbursed
in 2021. Grants from the funds are made to entities
responsible for producing and maintaining housing
for low-income renters or homeowners. To receive
the grants, developers must meet certain eligibility
and affordability requirements for the qualifying
properties.
Budgetary Impact. Allocating money received by
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to use for affordable
housing is a cost to the federal government
because those two entities are effectively part of the
government, in the Congressional Budget Office's
assessment. Although payments made by Fannie
Mae and Freddie Mac to the funds do not increase
the GSEs' potential liability from their mortgage
guarantees (because they are not taking on any more
risk), they reduce the net income of the enterprises
and result in budget outlays.

Production of Low-Income Units. As of October 3,
2022, projects funded with nearly $317 million in
HTF grants have produced 2,989 completed rental
units. As of the end of fiscal year 2021, $168 million
of CMF funds had been spent on completed projects
that have produced nearly 21,000 rental units and
4,200 owner-occupied properties.
- Effectiveness. Measuring the effectiveness of the grants
made from the HTF and CMF in relation to other
federal activities that create or preserve affordable
housing is difficult. Those comparisons must take into
account several factors, including the type of subsidy
offered by the program: Some programs (including the
HTF and CMF) offer subsidies that are designed to
spur production of new housing units; others provide
subsidies that spur demand for them by increasing the
purchasing power of renters and homeowners.
Payments to the Funds and
Grants From the Funds
The federal government supports housing for low-income
households through a number of programs, including the
Housing Trust Fund and the Capital Magnet Fund. The
HTF provides grants to states to increase and preserve
the supply of rental housing and homeownership oppor-
tunities for low-income families. The CMF provides
grants to community development financial institutions
(CDFIs)-financial institutions that focus on economi-
cally disadvantaged communities-and nonprofit housing
organizations to finance loans and to capitalize funds that
support affordable housing.
Both funds were established by the Housing and
Economic Recovery Act of 2008 (HERA). They are
financed through an up-front fee of 4.2 basis points (or
0.042 percent) on the principal balance of new mortgage

Notes: Unless this report indicates otherwise, all years referred to are calendar years. Numbers in the text and tables may not add up to totals because of rounding.

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