What is Housing Development Assistance (HDA)? 

Housing Development Assistance is a program administered by Austin Housing Finance Corporation (AHFC) which provides gap financing for rental and ownership income-restricted housing development. The HDA program utilizes a variety of funding sources, including the Housing Trust Fund, General Obligation Bonds, Project Connect, and density bonuses fees-in-lieu to award low-interest development loans. Details on the program and current eligibility requirements can be found on our HDA webpage. 

The Rental Housing Development Assistance (RHDA) Program works to expand the community’s supply of affordable rental housing for low-income households and to increase the availability of permanent supportive housing for persons experiencing homelessness. The Ownership Housing Development Assistance (OHDA) Program provides funding to private and nonprofit developers for the acquisition, rehabilitation, and new construction of affordable ownership housing for low- to moderate-income homebuyers. 

What is changing and why? 

The team at AHFC is making changes in a few areas. This includes proposed program updates as well as updates to the Tenant Protection Lease Addendum. You can read more about each of these and weigh in at the links below.  

AHFC staff have also conducted a stakeholder engagement process to prepare a compliance and monitoring implementation plan. The proposed implementation plan can be found in the section called Monitoring & Compliance Implementation Plan. 

Our department believes these changes are necessary to improve program performance, ensure the effective use of public funds, and ultimately improve outcomes for low- to moderate-income tenants and homeowners. These changes are also in response to the feedback we’ve received from you, the community.