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# Off-Farm Labor Housing Direct Loans & Grants

**Fact Sheet

Federal Register Notice

##             Overview          

### Federal Register Correction Notice - Funding is currently Open

In notice document, 2024-05505, appearing on pages 19400 through 19468 in the issue of Monday, March 18, 2024, make the following correction: On page 19400, in the third column, in line twelve, change the phone number from “254-757-5647” to “202-205-9217”.

### Repair Federal Register Notice - Funding is currently Open

Request for Application: Off-Farm Labor Housing Subsequent Loans and Off-Farm Labor Housing Subsequent Grants to Improve, Repair, or Make Modifications to Existing Off-Farm Labor Housing Properties for Fiscal Year 2024

### New Construction Federal Register Notices - Funding is Currently Closed

                                      -  Notice of Solicitation of Applications for Section 514 Off-Farm Labor Housing Loans and Section 516 Off-Farm Labor Housing Grants for New Construction for Fiscal Year 2021
                                      - Notice of Solicitation of Applications for Section 514 Off-Farm Labor Housing Loans and Section 516 Off- Farm Labor Housing Grants for New Construction for Fiscal Year 2022  (Second Round)
                                      - Notice of Solicitation of Applications for Section 514 Off-Farm Labor Housing Loans and Section 516 Off Farm Labor Housing Grants for New Construction for Fiscal Year 2022  (Third Round)

**What does this program do?**It provides affordable financing to develop housing for year-round and migrant or seasonal domestic farm laborers. (1)

**Who may apply for this program?**This program assists qualified applicants that cannot obtain commercial credit on terms that will allow them to charge rents that are affordable to low-income tenants. Borrowers must have sufficient qualifications and experience to develop and operate the project. Qualified applicants include:
                                  - Broad-based nonprofit organizations*
                                  - Nonprofit organization of farmworkers*
                                  - Federally recognized Indian Tribes*
                                  - Community organizations*
                                  - States or local governments*
                                  - Limited partnerships with a nonprofit general partner. Must meet  7 CFR3560.55(d)  requirements. 

*Eligible to apply for grants and loans

**What is an eligible area?**Housing may be constructed in urban or rural areas, as long as there is a demonstrated need.

**How may funds be used?**Construction, improvement, repair and purchase of housing for domestic farm laborers is the primary objective of this program.

**Funding may also be available for related activities including:**
                                  - Buying and improve land
                                  - Purchasing household furnishings
                                  - Paying construction loan interest
                                  - For a complete list see  7 CFR 3560.53 .

**Who may live in the rental housing?**
                                  - Domestic farm laborers, including those working on fish and oyster farms and on-farm processing  (1)
                                  - Retired and/or disabled farm laborers
                                  - Must be a U.S. citizen or permanent resident or those legally admitted to this country and authorized to perform agricultural work
                                  - Very-low- to moderate-income households  (2)

**What kinds of funding are available?**
                                  - Low interest loans
                                  - Grants based on need and may not exceed 90% of project cost

**What are the loan terms?**
                                  - Up to 33 year payback period
                                  - 1% fixed rate
                                  - An allocation of loan funds is also available for on-farm labor housing and is funded on a first-come, first-served basis

**How do we get started?**A two-phase application process starts with pre-applications accepted on an annual basis through a Notice of Funding Availability (NOFA) in the Federal Register. Selected pre-applications are invited to submit final applications

**Who can answer questions?**Locate your regional contact on the Contact tab or you can find Rural Rental Properties

**What governs this program?**
                                  - Off-Farm:  7 CFR 3560-Subpart L
                                  - On-Farm:  7 CFR 3560 Subpart M
                                  - Title V of the Housing Act of 1949

**NOTE:**Because citations and other information may be subject to change please always consult the program instructions listed in the section above titled "What Law Governs this Program?".

(1) Domestic farm laborer: A person who receives a portion of his/her income from farm labor employment. This definition may include the immediate family members residing with such a person.

(2) Very-low to moderate-income: Very-low income is below 50% of area median income; low-income is 50-80% of area median income; moderate income is capped at $5,500 above low-income limit.

##             To Apply          

## Funding for Repairs - Funding is open

Notice of Solicitation of Applications for Section 514 Off-Farm Labor Housing Subsequent Loans and Section 516 Off-Farm Labor Housing Subsequent Grants to Improve, Repair, or Make Modifications to Existing Off-Farm Labor Housing Properties for Fiscal Year 2024 published in the Federal Register on March 18, 2024. Funding amounts are indicated below:

**•    FLH Loan (514): Up to $10,000,000•    FLH Grant (516): Up to $18,000,000**

Off-Farm Labor Housing Subsequent Loans and Off-Farm Labor Housing Subsequent Grants to Improve, Repair, or Make Modifications to Existing Off-Farm Labor Housing Properties for Fiscal Year 2024

## Funding for New Construction - Funding is currently closed

Notice of Solicitation of Applications for Section 514 Off-Farm Labor Housing Loans and Section 516 Off[1]Farm Labor Housing Grants for New Construction for Fiscal Year 2022 (Third Round)

## Awards

Rural Development’s Office of Multifamily Housing is pleased to announce the following applications have been awarded funds in the Farm Labor Housing New Construction NOSA for the third round. The next funding opportunity for Farm Labor Housing funds for new construction, repair, preservation, and gap financing is expected to be later this fiscal year, as part of the Multifamily Housing SuperNOSA.

### 

### **Off-FLH New Construction – Third Round**

Multifamily Housing Construction Monitoring Checklists (zip) The Construction Monitoring Checklists provide guidance and clarification to assist RD borrowers, applicants and staff throughout the construction submittal, project delivery, and construction monitoring processes. These checklists include general instructions used in meeting the construction requirements per 7 CFR 1924 and 7 CFR 3560.

Multifamily Housing Appraisal Assignment Guidance (zip) The Appraisal Assignment Guidance documents provide standardized appraisal guidance for each multifamily housing program.  The documents remove the need for specific appraisal assignment guidance for each individual project.  The applicant will download the applicable appraisal assignment guidance based on their specific transaction and provide it to their appraiser in order to obtain an appraisal.  Once the appraisal is completed, the applicant will submit the appraisal along with the complete application package to the agency.  The appraisal must be submitted with the application.  If an appraisal is submitted prior to the application submission, it will be returned to the applicant.  The agency will no longer provide specific appraisal assignment guidance for each individual project, instead, the applicant will be responsible for downloading the applicable standardized appraisal assignment guidance for their specific transaction and providing it to their appraiser.

##             Other Requirements          

Individual states may have particular requirements based on state and local regulations. Please contact the state office in the state where your project is located.

Individual states may have particular requirements based on state and local regulations. Please contact the state office in the state where your project is located.

Rural Development environmental requirements can be found here: RD 1970 Environmental Policies and Procedures. Benefits of the 1970 environmental regulations are described here: 7 CFR 1970 Benefits.

There are no other additional requirements at the national level. If there are additional state-specific requirements they will be listed above.

##             Contact          

On October 11, 2020 Rural Development’s Multifamily Housing Program finalized its structural realignment which, in some cases, redistributed the existing portfolio to a servicing Specialist within our new Field Operations Division. If you are looking for the servicing Specialist for a specific property, you will find a complete and sortable list here: https://www.sc.egov.usda.gov/data/MFH.html

Our Field Operations Division maintains local relationships through regionally organized servicing teams and handles all day-today servicing of Multifamily housing properties to ensure that tenants have safe and affordable housing. The four regions and the contact information for each Regional Director follows:

**Western Region: Becki Meyer, Regional Director,**MFHFODWest@usda.gov (AK, AZ, CA, CO, HI, ID, MT, NM, NV, OR, UT, WA, WY)**Southern Region: Byron Waters, Regional Director,**MFHFODSouth@usda.gov(AL, AR, FL, GA, KY, LA, MS, NC, OK, PR, SC, TN, TX, VI)**Midwest Region: Laurie Warzinski, Acting Regional Director,**MFHFODMidwest@usda.gov(IA, IL, IN, KS, MI, MN, MO, ND, NE, OH, SD, WI)**Northeast Region: Donna O'Brien, Acting Regional Director,**MFHFODNortheast@usda.gov(CT, DE, MA, MD, ME, NH, NJ, NY, PA, RI, VA, VT, WV)

If you need information on a loan transaction currently in process, or have questions on a new transaction, our Production & Preservation Division (PPD) processes, underwrites, and closes all multifamily direct, preservation, and guaranteed loan transactions. PPD will support all the Multifamily Housing Programs, including 515, 538, Multifamily Preservation and Revitalization (MPR), prepayments, and preservation efforts. This division will also oversee Notice of Solicitation of Applications (NOSA) drafting and administration efforts for Farm Labor Housing, Housing Preservation Grants, MPR, technical assistance, and 515. The email contact information for the Production & Preservation Division follows:

**Processing and Report Review Branch** 1 MFHprocessing1@usda.gov (CT, DE, IA, IL, IN, KS, MA, MD, ME, MI, MN, MO, ND, NE, NH, NJ, NY, OH, PA, RI, SD, VA, VT, WI, WV)

**Processing and Report Review Branch 2**MFHprocessing2@usda.gov(AK, AL, AR, AZ, CA, CO, FL, GA, HI, ID, KY, LA, MS, MT, NC, NM, NV, OK, OR, PR, SC, TN, TX, UT, VI, WA, WY)

##             Events          

### Workshop Information

Rural Housing Service hosted an Off-Farm Labor Housing (FLH) Repair Workshop on April 3, 2024 to discuss the application process, the borrower’s responsibilities under the Off-FLH program, among other topics. The following is a downloadable copy of the Off-FLH Workshop presentation.
                                  - Off-FLH Repair Workshop – Presentation slides
                                  - Off-FLH Repair Workshop – Q&As

Rural Housing Service hosted an Off-Farm Labor Housing (FLH) Workshop for New Construction - Third Round on May 11, 2022 to discuss the application process and the borrower’s responsibilities under the Off-FLH program, among other topics. The following is a downloadable copy of the Off-FLH Workshop presentation.
                                  - Off-FLH New Construction - Third Round Workshop

Rural Housing Service hosted an Off-Farm Labor Housing (FLH) Repair Workshop on April 13, 2022 to discuss the application process, the borrower’s responsibilities under the Off-FLH program, among other topics. The following is a downloadable copy of the Off-FLH Workshop presentation.
                                  - Off-FLH Repair Workshop 

Rural Housing Service hosted a Multifamily Workshop on April 6, 2022 to address funding gaps in Section 515 and FLH (514/516) transactions.  The following is a downloadable copy of the Workshop presentation.  Please note: a revision was made to page 8 to clarify rates/terms for agency subsequent loans.
                                  - Addressing Funding Gap Workshop

Rural Housing Service hosted an Off-Farm Labor Housing (FLH) Workshop for New Construction - Second Round on August 25, 2021 to discuss the application process, the borrower’s responsibilities under the Off-FLH program, among other topics. The following is a downloadable copy of the Off-FLH Workshop presentation.
                                  - Off-FLH New Construction - Second Round Workshop