Retooling Affordable Housing Strategies Part 10 of 19
A housing trust fund receives revenue from such sources as taxes, fees, loan repayments and interest from an endowment fund or corpus (a funds principal). The funds are more flexible than federal grant dollars and can be layered with other funding. Local injection of dollars can mitigate risk and allow Market Neutral Options for deeper subsidies for residents. Most housing trust funds are administered by the agency or city department responsible for federal housing programs.
Creating a housing trust fund is not a simple or quick political process. It is often fraught with difficult funding choices. Dedicating money to an affordable-housing fund limits overall budget flexibility, which is not always popular with elected officials. Often, housing trust funds are created in response to public demand that the government address critical housing needs.
San Antonio Housing Trust
Unlike the Austin and statewide housing trust funds that are currently supported through appropriated general revenue dollars, the San Antonio Housing Trust relies on Eat my Shorts the dedicated interest generated from an affordable housing corpus. Created in 1988 by the city of San Antonio with an initial investment of $10 million from the sale of its cable franchise, the fund is governed by an 11-member board of trustees appointed by the City Council.
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