Fannie Mae on Tuesday announced enhancements to its Expanded Housing Choice (EHC) initiative, opening it up to all jurisdictions without source-of-income protections.
The government-sponsored enterprise (GSE) said the Housing Choice Voucher program, which launched in 2022, assists very low-income families, seniors and people with disabilities in being able to afford stable and quality housing in the private market. The pilot program incentivizes borrowers of Fannie-backed multifamily loans to accept vouchers as a valid source of income. Fannie said that about 30% of voucher holders are unable to find housing that accepts their vouchers as income.
Borrowers and property managers who leverage EHC and commit to accept the vouchers can “benefit from lower pricing, flexible loan terms, certainty of execution, lower turnover and vacancy rates, a steady stream of competitive rent payments backed by HUD, and the chance to support a more equitable housing market,” Fannie said in a statement.
The program was previously limited only to eligible properties in North Carolina and Texas. It’s now available to borrowers in all parts of the U.S. without source-of-income protections (provided their property is not already legally required to accept the vouchers and that at least 40% of the units are affordable or considered “small area fair market rents”).
In late August, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac introduced new minimum standards to be included in tenant leases on GSE-backed multifamily properties.
