Inactive

USDA’s Rural Development (RD) mission area, Rural Housing Service (RHS), is the sub-agency which administers the Single Family Housing Direct Home Loans (SFHDHL) program, also known as Section 502 Dir... USDA’s Rural Development (RD) mission area, Rural Housing Service (RHS), is the sub-agency which administers the Single Family Housing Direct Home Loans (SFHDHL) program, also known as Section 502 Direct Loan Program. This program provides a path to home ownership for low- and very-low-income families living in rural areas, and families who truly have no other way to make affordable homeownership a reality. The Housing Act of 1949 as amended, 7 CFR, Part 3550, and the HB-1-3550 - Direct Single Family Housing Loans Field Office Handbook govern this program. Fiserv's UniFi(R) PRO loan origination system (LOS) is a web based, commercial off the shelf product which has been tailored for RD purposes. Its functions include those financial and non-financial actions necessary to make sure that the portfolio of prequalifications and applications are managed and serviced in accordance with all applicable governing laws and in accordance with departmental policies, procedures, and regulations. It retains applicant information, makes complex computations, and maintains a central record of all activities associated with an individual application from the time of pre-qualification through loan closing. UniFi was implemented in RD over 20 years ago, has reached its end of life, and is scheduled to sunset in December 2021. RD would be at a detrimental loss, which is expected to occur if this system based on the UniFi software becomes unavailable due to proprietary software rights as this is the only software system currently that will work for SFHDHL required tasks. The only option available to RD until a replacement program is procured and transition into place, is to purchase the UniFi source code or a perpetual license, which will prevent immediate loss of the required SFHDHL Direct Loan Program functionality. The Unifi software is owned by the vendor, “Fiserv” and the Unifi software is proprietary to Fiserv.