HUD Announces Affordable Housing Grants for Elderly, Diabled Mortgage Applicants

While affordable housing developments are underway in New Orleans, a larger, national plan is also in the works.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development this week announced $633.2 million in housing assistance grants to create affordable housing for very low-income elderly and people with disabilities.

The funding includes $511.9 million in Section 202 grants and $121.3 million in Section 811 grants. To be classified as “very low-income,” a household’s income cannot exceed 50 percent of the area’s median income.

“These grants will help the nation’s very low-income elderly and people with disabilities find decent housing that they can afford,” said HUD Secretary Alphonso Jackson. “Neither group should ever have to worry about being able to find a safe place to live.”

HUD’s Section 202 grants fund the construction and rehabilitation of projects to create apartments for the very low-income elderly, while subsidizing rents for three years so that residents will pay only 30 percent of their adjusted incomes as rent.

The Section 811 grants usually fund newly built apartments, group homes or condominium units for households with one or more very low-income individuals, at least one of whom is at least 18 years old and has a disability, such as a physical or developmental disability or chronic mental illness.

Residents will pay 30 percent of their adjusted income for rent and the federal government will pay the rest. This should help offset payments on any bad credit home loans these individuals may need to apply for.

HUD typically awards the funds to nonprofit agencies in the form of capital advances, which covers the cost of developing the housing, and project rental assistance, which covers the difference between the residents’ contributions toward rent and the cost of operating the project.