HOME Investment Partnerships Program

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HOME Investment Partnerships Program (HOME)

The HOME Investment Partnerships Program (HOME) provides formula grants to states and localities that communities use - often in partnership with local nonprofit groups - to fund a wide range of activities including building, buying, and/or rehabilitating affordable housing for rent or homeownership or providing direct rental assistance to low-income people. It is the largest Federal block grant to state and local governments designed exclusively to create affordable housing for low-income households.

The HOME Program, established under Title II (Home Investment Partnerships Act) of the National Affordable Housing Act of 1990, has several purposes, including:

To expand the supply of decent and affordable housing for low- and very low-income Americans - such housing includes existing rental housing made affordable through tenant-based assistance.
To strengthen the abilities of State and local governments and nonprofit organizations to design and implement strategies for providing decent, affordable housing.
To provide financial and technical assistance to participating jurisdictions, including developing model programs for developing affordable housing.
To create and strengthen partnerships among all government and the private sector levels, including for-profit and nonprofit organizations, to produce and/or manage affordable housing.

The program was designed to reinforce several important values and principles of community development:

HOME's flexibility empowers people and communities to design and implement strategies tailored to their own needs and priorities.

HOME's emphasis on consolidated planning expands and strengthens partnerships among all levels of government and the private sector in the development of affordable housing.
HOME's technical assistance activities and set-aside for qualified community-based nonprofit housing groups builds the capacity of these partners.
HOME's requirement that Participating Jurisdictions (PJs) match 25 cents of every dollar in program funds mobilizes community resources in support of affordable housing.

HOME-assisted rental housing must comply with certain rent limitations. HOME rent limits are published each year by HUD. The program also establishes maximum per unit subsidy limits and homeownership value limits. Participating jurisdictions may choose among a broad range of eligible activities, using HOME funds to provide home purchase or rehabilitation financing assistance to eligible homeowners and new homebuyers; build or rehabilitate housing for rent or ownership; or for "other reasonable and necessary expenses related to the development of non-luxury housing," including site acquisition or improvement, demolition of dilapidated housing to make way for HOME-assisted development, and payment of relocation expenses. PJs may use HOME funds to provide tenant-based rental assistance contracts of up to 2 years if such activity is consistent with their Consolidated Plan and justified under local market conditions. This assistance may be renewed.

Eligible Activities

Eligible activities that can be carried out with CDBG grant funds include but are not limited to:

New Construction
Site Improvements
Home Buyer Assistance
Demolition
Ineligible Uses of HOME Funds
Public Housing Modernization
Project-based rental assistance
Tenant subsidies for specially mandated purposes

Eligible Applicants

Eligibility extends to a public or private nonprofit agency such as social service agencies and community development corporations, authority, organization, a for-profit entity or independent public agencies, such as urban renewal agencies, housing authorities, and water and sewer districts. An eligible applicant must meet all the following criteria: · Serve as the fiscal agent for the grant and the point of contact to DGCD.

Be responsible, liable, and oversee financial, program, and post-award reporting requirements. Each applicant organization shall meet the following requirements:
Religion - Grantee programs may not promote, discuss, or teach religion. Program activities and services are required to be accessible to any interested participant, regardless of religious affiliation.
Criminal Background Checks - All Grantees must conduct criminal background checks on all direct service and outreach personnel who have contact with victims of human trafficking. Grantees must use fingerprint background checks to conduct a background check on all direct service and outreach personnel once every three years.
Comply with DGCD grant requirements – Agencies must adhere to financial and programmatic guidelines; comply with deadlines; and provide all information to DGCD as requested in a timely fashion.

Eligible Beneficiaries

The eligibility of households for HOME assistance varies with the nature of the funded activity. For rental housing and rental assistance, at least 90 percent of benefiting families must have incomes that are no more than 60 percent of the HUD-adjusted median family income for the area. In rental projects with five or more assisted units, at least 20% of the units must be occupied by families with incomes that do not exceed 50% of the HUD-adjusted median. The incomes of households receiving HUD assistance must not exceed 80 percent of the area median. HOME income limits are published each year by HUD.

CHDO Certification

A Community Housing Development Organization (CHDO) is a private nonprofit, community-based organization that has staff with the capacity to develop affordable housing for the community it serves. The term CHDO refers to a special designation awarded by state and local governments to non-profit housing developers that meet federally defined requirements including but not limited to staff capacity, board composition, legal structure, and service history. To qualify for designation as a CHDO, the organization must meet certain requirements pertaining to their legal status, organizational structure, and capacity and experience. Eligible CHDO operating expenses and capacity building costs 24 CFR 92.208 To become a certified CHDO or be recertified as a CHDO. Per federal regulation, the City of Atlanta is required to reserve a minimum of 15% of its annual HOME allocation for housing owned, developed or sponsored by CHDOs.

CHDO set-aside funds can be used for:

Acquisition and/or rehabilitation of rental housing
Acquisition and management of standard rental housing
New construction of rental housing
Acquisition and/or rehabilitation of home buyer properties
New construction of home buyer properties
Direct financial assistance to purchasers of HOME-assisted housing sponsored or developed by a CHDO with HOME funds.

New HOME rules (effective August 23, 2013) require that organizations (even previously COA-certified CHDOs) must be certified as a CHDO each time they apply for a HOME-funded housing development, project-specific pre-development loan or operating grant. Consequently, an organization can only be a CHDO if it is involved in an eligible development project.

A CHDO must meet certain requirements pertaining to its:

legal status
organizational structure
capacity and experience

For additional information, please contact your assigned Management Analyst.

HOME American Rescue Plan

Eligible Grantees

The 651 State and local Participating Jurisdictions (PJs) that qualified for an annual HOME Investment Partnerships Program (HOME) allocation for FY 2021 are eligible to receive HOME American Rescue Plan (HOME-ARP) grants. HOME-ARP funds will be allocated using the HOME Program formula. The HOME-ARP allocations were announced on April 8, 2021.

Eligible Populations

HOME-ARP funds must be used to primarily benefit individuals or families from the following qualifying populations:

Homeless, as defined in section 103(a) of the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act (42 U.S.C. 11302(a))
At-risk of homelessness, as defined in section 401(1) of the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act (42 U.S.C. 11360(1))
Fleeing, or attempting to flee, domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, stalking, or human trafficking, as defined by the Secretary
In other populations where providing supportive services or assistance under section 212(a) of the Act (42 U.S.C. 12742(a)) would prevent the family’s homelessness or would serve those with the greatest risk of housing instability
Veterans and families that include a veteran family member that meet one of the preceding criteria

Eligible Activities

HOME-ARP funds can be used for four eligible activities:

Production or Preservation of Affordable Housing
Tenant-Based Rental Assistance (TBRA)
Supportive Services, including services defined at 24 CFR 578.53(e), Homeless Prevention Services, and Housing Counseling
Purchase and Development of Non-Congregate Shelter. These structures can remain in use as non-congregate shelter or can be converted to: 1. emergency shelter under the Emergency Solutions Grants (ESG) Program; 2. permanent housing under the Continuum of Care (CoC) Program; or 3. affordable housing under the HOME Program.

Administrative and Operating Funding

HOME-ARP provides up to 15 percent of the allocation for administrative and planning costs of the PJ and subrecipients administering all or a portion of the grant. In addition, HOME-ARP can provide up to 5 percent of its allocation for operating costs of Community Housing Development Organizations (CHDOs), other non-profit organizations, and homeless providers. Additional HOME-ARP funding is available to these organizations for capacity building activities.

HOME Subrecipient Resources

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Content current as of September 20, 2024.