The challenges of providing affordable housing are far-reaching and persistent. Freddie Mac’s three-year Duty to Serve plan describes how we will help increase rental and homeownership opportunities in historically underserved markets and provide access to safe and affordable housing throughout the nation.

As part of this initiative, the Freddie Mac Multifamily team is releasing seven reports in 2019 that focus on the opportunities and challenges to providing affordable multifamily rental housing in underserved markets. We’ve consulted numerous housing agencies, financiers, researchers and government and nonprofit organizations, and compiled extensive external and Freddie Mac internal data to prepare these papers. And to further this initiative, we’ve released a first-of-its-kind Mission Map and series of podcasts that discuss many related topics on affordability, manufactured housing and green programs.

Below is a compilation of this year’s reports. We would love to hear from you on these topics or our other Duty to Serve initiatives! Please reach out to the following authors for additional information, questions or comments.

Steve Guggenmos, vice president, Research & Modeling

Corey Aber, senior director of Mission, Policy and Strategy

And a special thanks to the many writers involved in this year’s reports, including Kevin Burke, Michael Donnelly, Sara Hoffmann, Agnes Kucharski, Garvin Lee, Carol Thompson, Justin Thomson and Naureen Versi.

  • Mississippi Delta Research Paper

    LIHTC in Rural Lower Mississippi Delta
    The rural Lower Mississippi Delta region is home to 5.2 million people and spans eight states from Illinois to Louisiana. It is also one of the most underserved housing markets in the country. View the report.

  • USDA Section 538 Research Paper

    USDA Section 538
    Safe and affordable rental housing is an important resource for rural communities across the country. In this report, we look at the role the Section 538 program has played in addressing rental affordability. View the report.

  • Manufactured Housing Resident-Owned Communities Research Paper

    Manufactured Housing Resident-Owned Communities
    Although the MHROC market is quite small, it plays an important role for residents in these areas. View the report.

  • Affordable Housing in High Opportunity Areas Research Paper

    Affordable Housing in High Opportunity Areas
    High opportunity areas are found all over the country and are home to roughly 18% of the population. In this report, we look at three properties to better understand local efforts and successes in developing affordable housing in these areas. View the report.

  • Affordable Housing in High Opportunity Areas Defined in State LIHTC QAPs

    Affordable Housing in High Opportunity Areas Defined in State LIHTC QAPs
    In this report, we compare three properties in San Francisco, Baltimore and Minnesota’s Twin Cities markets to help identify replicable financing approaches to create and preserve affordable housing across the country. View the report.

  • Furthering Opportunity in Areas of Concentrated Poverty PDF Icon

    Furthering Opportunity in Areas of Concentrated Poverty
    Many of our nation’s ACPs are in the midst of economic revitalization, which can benefit the community as long as affordable housing is not lost in the process. View the report.

  • 2019 Analysis of Green Improvements in Workforce Housing

    2019 Analysis of Green Improvements in Workforce Housing
    What do green property improvements have to do with preserving the affordability of workforce rental housing? Plenty! View the report.