HUD Awards $5 Million Through New Tenant Resource Network

Housing advocates across the country will see an influx of nearly $5 million in grant money to assist low-income tenants receiving Section 8 project-based rental assistance.

In June, HUD awarded the funds through its new Tenant Resource Network (TRN) to 15 nonprofit tenant assistance organizations located in California, Connecticut, Georgia, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Texas, Virginia, and Washington.

The purpose of TRN is to make grants to qualified nonprofit organizations to assist, inform, educate, and engage residents of certain Section 8-assisted properties at risk of losing affordability protections or project-based rental assistance.

“The Tenant Resource Network is designed to help working families who are at greatest risk of being priced out of their rental market,” Carol Galante, HUD’s Acting Assistant Secretary for Housing, said in a statement. “The whole purpose of this program is to empower families living in HUD-assisted housing, giving them the information and options they need to stay in their homes.”

One goal of the TRN program is to assist tenants living in project-based Section 8 housing regarding their rights, responsibilities, and options when a property owner “opts-out” the program, pre-pays their mortgage, or repeatedly fails to meet HUD’s housing standards. The second purpose of the program is preservation of HUD-assisted affordable housing by engaging residents in efforts to preserve eligible properties as affordable housing.

TRN is a new program developed under the authority of Section 514 of the Multifamily Assisted Housing Reform and Affordability Act of 1997 (MAHRA). The TRN Program targeted certain Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs) that include a high proportion of TRN-eligible housing units.

Source: HUD