HOME Investment Partnerships Program

The HOME Investment Partnerships Program (HOME) is provided by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to States and localities in order to fund a wide range of activities that build, buy, and/or rehabilitate homes to provide decent and affordable housing, particularly housing for low and moderate income households for rent or homeownership. It is the largest Federal block grant to States and local governments designed exclusively to create affordable housing for families.

In general, under this program HUD allocates funds by formula among eligible State and local governments to strengthen public-private partnerships and to expand the supply of decent, safe, sanitary, and affordable housing, with primary attention to rental housing, for very low-income and low-income families. The Nassau County Office of Community Development is the local participating jurisdiction which administers the HOME program. Generally, HOME funds must be matched by nonfederal resources. State and local governments that become participating jurisdictions may use HOME funds to carry out multi-year housing strategies through acquisition, rehabilitation, and new construction of housing, and tenant-based rental assistance. Participating jurisdictions may provide assistance in a number of eligible forms, including loans, advances, equity investments, interest subsidies, and other forms of investment that HUD approves. The final beneficiaries must be low and moderate income families. HUD has designed a general formula with which all governments must comply when providing HOME funds to citizens, which is that the incomes of families receiving HOME assistance or funds in a specific area (city, county, etc.) must not exceed 80% of the area's family income median or average. HUD publishes the area median incomes plus the 80% income limits every year in its website.

Benefits provided

The HOME program was designed and implemented in order to increase the amount of affordable housing in the United States for its citizens. It was designed with four main objectives in mind:

• Expanding the supply of decent and affordable housing in the U.S.
• Strengthening the abilities of States and local governments to design and implement strategies for achieving adequate supplies of decent, affordable housing
• Providing financial and technical assistance to States and local governments to develop affordable housing
• Extending and strengthening partnerships among all levels of government (both local and federal) and the private sector (both for-profit and nonprofit organizations) in the production and operation of affordable housing

The HOME program is an authorized program under Title II of the Cranston-Gonzalez National Affordable Housing Act, as amended.

The program's regulations are located at 24 CFR Part 92. For more information on the regulations go to U.S. Government Publishing Office website.