While most news outlets have focused on the Fannie/Freddie bailout and the fund for FHA-insured re-structured loan pieces of the new housing bill (formally named “The Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008“, H.R. 322), a number of the less well-known provisions will have an enormous impact on affordable housing opportunities and pose a challenge to housing advocates and HUD - will these new housing opportunities add to, have no affect on, or decrease segregation?

To briefly review just two of these provisions:

• Nearly $4b will be distributed to the states to purchase and rehab foreclosed properties - and the money should be in their hands by this November. All of the funds must be used to help families at or below 120% of the area median income, and at least 25% of the funds used to help families at or below 50% of the area median income. Find out exactly how much your state is getting and what implications it may have at SaveAmericasNeighborhoods.org. All of the funds must be committed within 18 months and public housing authorities are allowed to purchase homes that they will in turn operate as affordable rental housing.
• The bill establishes the first-ever national Affordable Housing Trust Fund. In 2010, based on a share of new business at Freddie and Fannie money will be put into the fund and roughly $300m will be available each year by 2012. Administrative costs can take no more than 10% of funds and at least 90% of the remainder must be used for production, preservation, rehabilitation and operation of rental housing, with at least 75% of those funds assisting extremely low income families. A maximum of 10% of the funds will be available for homeownership programs. Read more at the National Low Income Housing Coalition.

(Note: there are many more small provisions to the bill not mentioned above - for a full breakdown read this summary (.pdf) from the Massachusetts Citizens Housing and Planning Association.)

As with any federally-driven housing policy, the devil is in the details. The foreclosure purchase-and-rehab fund is not large enough to purchase every foreclosed or abandoned property in every state, so which neighborhoods will benefit from these funds? Will the affordable housing opportunities created be in poor and minority neighborhoods or will they offer families in need of affordable housing the chance to make an integrative move? The Affordable Housing Trust Fund is incredibly exciting but simply not large enough to meet the demand, so which communities will benefit from those funds as they become available?

For years fair and affordable housing advocates have decried the siting of new affordable housing developments in mostly poor and minority neighborhoods, instead pushing for a those opportunities to be spread across regions and concentrated in communities that provide jobs, quality schools, transportation options, and pathways to success.

These new funds represent an opportunity to aggressively promote residential racial and economic integration. Nearly every neighborhood in America has been touched by foreclosures, and states have a unique and rare chance to site new affordable housing in communities where it presently doesn’t exist.

Housing advocates have a daunting task ahead of us - in just 2 years nearly $4,000,000,000 will be spent creating new affordable housing. We should anticipate the cries of “not in my backyard” and steel ourselves for what is sure to be an uphill battle.

Convincing Congress to create these opportunities was the easy part.

(Note: this summary of the bill is based in part on an incredibly helpful e-mail from Barbara Sard of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.)