If President Obama wants to create jobs in the building trades he should create a housing trust fund to finance the construction and renovation of rental units for extremely low-income households, according to non-profit housing groups.
"It is clear the housing construction industry has not fully recovered from the recession,” said Sheila Crowley, president and chief executive of the National Low Income Housing Coalition.
“Investing in the National Housing Trust Fund can achieve two critical objectives: stimulating job growth in a struggling industry, and creating housing that can help end homelessness for good in the United States,” she said.
NLIHC estimates that a $10 billion investment in the National Housing Trust Fund would create 122,000 construction jobs and 30,000 new jobs to operate and manage the rental properties.
Congress has passed legislation to create such a housing trust fund but has never approved the seed money to start it.
The Department of the Housing and Urban Development has nearly finalized its housing trust fund regulations. "It's ready to go," Crowley said. "So if there was some money, they could get it out the door."
The NLIHC CEO also noted that the trust fund could be adopted to purchase single-family REO from Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the Federal Housing Administration, converting that inventory into affordable rental housing.
The Obama administration currently is soliciting proposals from private investors that want to purchase REO in bulk and turn it into rental housing. HUD expects these investors will manage the properties too.
Crowley noted that many of the non-profits that develop affordable housing also manage the properties.
