diff --git a/application/pyproject.toml b/application/pyproject.toml
index 86590298..30388f6b 100644
--- a/application/pyproject.toml
+++ b/application/pyproject.toml
@@ -28,4 +28,7 @@ exclude = [
 [tool.pytest.ini_options]
 DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE = "settings_test"
 pythonpath = ["./src", "./test"]
-python_files = "test_*.py"
\ No newline at end of file
+python_files = "test_*.py"
+
+[tool.pytest_env]
+HF_HOME = "./tira-root/huggingface"
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/application/setup.cfg b/application/setup.cfg
index 7fe224de..8ed7f473 100644
--- a/application/setup.cfg
+++ b/application/setup.cfg
@@ -39,6 +39,7 @@ test =
     parameterized
     approvaltests==7.3.0
     pytest-django
+    pytest-env==1.1.3
 dev =
     coverage
     coverage-badge
diff --git a/application/src/tira/huggingface_hub_integration.py b/application/src/tira/huggingface_hub_integration.py
index ccf968a1..4724d6eb 100644
--- a/application/src/tira/huggingface_hub_integration.py
+++ b/application/src/tira/huggingface_hub_integration.py
@@ -1,14 +1,11 @@
-import os
-from typing import Iterable
+from typing import Iterable, Optional
 
-from django.conf import settings
-from huggingface_hub import scan_cache_dir
-from huggingface_hub import snapshot_download as hfsnapshot_download
+from huggingface_hub import HFCacheInfo, scan_cache_dir, snapshot_download
+from huggingface_hub.constants import HF_HOME
 
 import tira.io_utils as tira_cli_io_utils
 
-TIRA_HOST_HF_HOME = tira_cli_io_utils.default_hf_home_in_tira_host(settings.TIRA_ROOT)
-HF_CACHE = None
+HF_CACHE: Optional[HFCacheInfo] = None
 
 
 def _hf_repos() -> dict[str, str]:
@@ -35,16 +32,8 @@ def huggingface_model_mounts(models: Iterable[str]):
         else:
             raise Exception(f"Model {model} is not available in the Huggingface cache")
 
-    return {"MOUNT_HF_MODEL": " ".join(models), "HF_HOME": TIRA_HOST_HF_HOME, "HF_CACHE_SCAN": ret}
+    return {"MOUNT_HF_MODEL": " ".join(models), "HF_HOME": HF_HOME, "HF_CACHE_SCAN": ret}
 
 
 def snapshot_download_hf_model(model: str):
-    os.environ["HF_HOME"] = TIRA_HOST_HF_HOME
     snapshot_download(repo_id=model.replace("--", "/"))
-
-
-def snapshot_download(*args, **kwargs) -> str:
-    return hfsnapshot_download(*args, cache_dir=TIRA_HOST_HF_HOME / "hub", **kwargs)
-
-
-snapshot_download.__doc__ = hfsnapshot_download.__doc__
diff --git a/application/test/hf_mount_model_tests/test_hf_mounts_are_parsed.py b/application/test/hf_mount_model_tests/test_hf_mounts_are_parsed.py
index d21b9c78..cf0640e8 100644
--- a/application/test/hf_mount_model_tests/test_hf_mounts_are_parsed.py
+++ b/application/test/hf_mount_model_tests/test_hf_mounts_are_parsed.py
@@ -1,6 +1,8 @@
 import unittest
 
-from tira.huggingface_hub_integration import _hf_repos, huggingface_model_mounts, snapshot_download
+from huggingface_hub import snapshot_download
+
+from tira.huggingface_hub_integration import _hf_repos, huggingface_model_mounts
 
 
 class TestHfMountsAreParsed(unittest.TestCase):
diff --git a/python-client/tira/io_utils.py b/python-client/tira/io_utils.py
index a12314f6..3be46d55 100644
--- a/python-client/tira/io_utils.py
+++ b/python-client/tira/io_utils.py
@@ -152,19 +152,6 @@ def _ln_huggingface_model_mounts(models: str) -> str:
     return "; ".join(ret + [f'echo "mounted {len(models)} models"'])
 
 
-def default_hf_home_in_tira_host(tira_base: Path) -> str:
-    """Returns the location of the hf home on the tira hosts that are mounted read-only into the pods.
-
-    Args:
-        tira_base (Path): The base path to TIRA's file structure. The hugging face home directory will be located inside
-        it.
-
-    Returns:
-        str: the HF_HOME on a tira host.
-    """
-    return tira_base / "data" / "publicly-shared-datasets" / "huggingface"
-
-
 def all_lines_to_pandas(input_file: Union[str, Iterable[str]], load_default_text: bool) -> pd.DataFrame:
     """
     .. todo:: add documentation