Call for Workshop Proposals for the 2025 National Rural Housing Conference

The Housing Assistance Council (HAC) invites you to submit a proposal for workshops at the 2025 National Rural Housing Conference (NRHC). We encourage proposals with interactive content or those that facilitate lively discussion.

About HAC

Since 1971 HAC has been helping local organizations build affordable homes in rural America. With a mission “to improve housing conditions for the rural poor”, HAC places an emphasis on the poorest of the poor in the most rural places. 

HAC assists in the development and preservation of affordable housing, community facilities, and placemaking. Our efforts emphasize local solutions, empowerment of people in poverty, and self-help strategies. HAC offers services to public, nonprofit, and private organizations throughout the rural United States, including the areas with persistent challenges in housing and community development, such as Central Appalachia, the Border Colonias, the Mississippi Delta and rural Southeast, Native American Lands, farmworker communities, and communities with large Veteran populations. 

Important Dates and Information
Proposals Due: June 15, 2025
Notification By: July 30, 2025
Workshop dates: Wednesday, November 5th and Thursday, November 6th
Location Washington, DC


Questions? Contact Kelly Cooney and Aquila Ledbetter.

About the Conference

The 2025 National Rural Housing Conference will be held November 4 – 7, 2025 at The Capital Hilton in Washington, DC.

The biennial NRHC is a space for collaboration, where leaders, advocates, industry experts, and practitioners come together to share successes, best practices, and bold strategies at the intersection of housing and community development. Through workshops, plenary sessions, the exchange of data, and policy discussions, we amplify the narrative of rural America, highlighting both its challenges and its triumphs.

Rural communities don’t thrive by accident — they are built with intention, vision, and action. Build Rural is more than just the theme for the 2025 NRHC; it is an ongoing call to invest in the future of rural America. By continuing to focus on housing, infrastructure, and community-driven solutions, we ensure that rural communities are healthy and sustainable for decades to come.

At its core, Build Rural is about turning ideas into impact. The National Rural Housing Conference challenges us to address the urgent need for housing affordability and preservation, invest in critical infrastructure and essential facilities, and empower residents to shape the places they call home. It pushes us to expand capacity, foster strategic partnerships, and advance resident led placemaking—because a strong rural America is built by and for the people who live there.

Workshops should seek to align themselves with the conference theme or one of the following threads: Housing Affordability, Development, Preservation, Community Facilities, Rural Prosperity, Placemaking, Capacity Building, or other adjacent threads.

About the Workshops

Workshops are intended to facilitate the active exchange of approaches and ideas. HAC recognizes learning landscapes have changed in recent years and aims to have workshops that engage participants in meaningful and beneficial ways.

Focused Workshops are 45 minutes. They should seek to provide exposure to new ideas, techniques, or approaches or provide concentrated engagement for participants. Focused workshops should allow at least 10 minutes for Q&A.

Standard Workshops are 90 minutes. A standard workshop could provide the time required to address a more complex or nuanced issue; allow additional presenters to provide a variety of examples or viewpoints; provide for discussion, case study, an activity, etc. Standard workshops should include 15 minutes for Q&A.

The NRHC is paperless. All workshop materials and information will be available via the conference app and website.

In addition to workshops that expand participants’ knowledge of traditional affordable housing and community development practices, HAC encourages workshops that address:

  • Placemaking, art, and design
  • Health and community connections
  • Nonprofit financial management
  • Housing rehab and/or preservation
  • Innovative homebuilding and construction methods
  • Other emerging topics

Selection Criteria

HAC will evaluate proposals using the following criteria. The order below does not reflect importance.

  • Interest and relevance to conference participants
  • Experience and organization of the presentation team
  • Potential to contribute to a balanced conference program
  • Presentation engagement and approach

Submission of a workshop proposal does not guarantee acceptance.

Submission Guidelines

HAC invites interested parties to submit workshop proposals here.

Proposals should include the following information:

TOPIC

  • Workshop title
  • Topic(s)
  • Impact Statement

PRESENTER(S)

  • Workshop Coordinator
  • Workshop Presenters, proposed and confirmed
  • Experience

FORMAT

  • Preference for a 45-minute or 90-minute workshop session
  • Workshop outline
  • Required resources

HAC’s Research Director Testifies to Senate Banking Committee on the State of Housing 2023

HAC was deeply honored by an invitation to testify at the first hearing held in the new 118th Congress by the Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee. Titled The State of Housing 2023, the session featured Lance George, HAC’s Director of Research and Information, as one of  three witnesses.

A wide range of topics was covered by the witnesses’ testimony and the Senators’ questions. Among the key areas of concern were the gap between housing supply and need, the high cost of both homeownership and rental housing, and what congressional actions could address these challenges. Committee Chair Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) asked specifically about the loss of rentals financed by USDA’s Section 515 program, a serious concern addressed by HAC research in 2016 and 2022.

Key Takeaways

Lance’s statement made five key points about the state of rural housing in 2023:

  • The pandemic left its mark on rural America and housing markets remain uncertain.
  • Rural mortgage markets are being impacted by interest rates and prices too.
  • Affordability is the greatest housing challenge in rural America, by far.
  • Manufactured housing is an often overlooked but important source of housing – especially in rural America.
  • Race matters across the rural spectrum – especially in housing.

Key policy recommendations, based on HAC’s full set of policy priorities for 2023, included:

  • Increase rural communities’ access to credit and capital and strengthen USDA and HUD homeownership supports.
  • Improve opportunities and financing for preserving aging rental properties and protecting tenants.
  • Authorize the powerful Rural Community Development Initiative and a significant cross-sectoral, flexible capacity building rural investment initiative.

Lance George

Lance George

HAC’s Director of Research & Information

Watch the Hearing


HAC’s Research Director Testifies on Persistent Poverty on Capitol Hill

On Tuesday, November 15, 2022 at 10:00 am EST the Subcommittee on Housing, Community Development and Insurance convened a hybrid hearing entitled, “Persistent Poverty in America: Addressing Chronic Disinvestment in Colonias, the Southern Black Belt, and the U.S. Territories.” Lance George, HAC’s Director of Research and Information, provided testimony during the hearing.

Watch the Hearing

For more information on Persistent Poverty, read The Persistence of Poverty in Rural America.

HAC Training Events Terms and Conditions

By registering for and/or attending a Housing Assistance Council (HAC) Training Event, all attendees agree to be bound by, and comply with, these Terms and Conditions. It is the attendee’s responsibility to read and understand these Terms and Conditions.

  1. Registration.  Registration is required for attendance at a HAC Training Event. The registration entitles each attendee to one place at the training.
    • Registration Fee. When a registration fee is charged, the fee includes (only) the cost of course material, training participation, access to all educational sessions, informal networking sessions, and meals described in the agenda. It excludes the cost of travel and boarding.
  1. Personal Information. Participants contact information, including: full name, job title, organization name, business address, phone number and email address, will be kept in the HAC contact databases and made available to other attendees through the conference app and printed attendee list.  Attendees requesting to opt-out of sharing contact information with other attendees may do on the registration portal, or by contacting the Training Coordinator.  HAC does not record or store credit card information.
  2. Usage of Photographic and Video Material.  HAC takes audio, video and photographic material of speakers and participants at events. In registering for the Training, you acknowledge that we may include images of yourself intact or in part for material used in various publications, press releases, promotional activities, or other related endeavors. This material may also appear on the HAC’s web page or related social media pages.
  3. Electronic Communication. By registering, you agree to receive electronic communication in the form of HAC news subscription, as well as information about other HAC events, training and products.
  4. Social Media. HAC welcomes and encourages the use of social media by participants. As a courtesy to other members, as well as to presenters at such events, we ask that you follow accepted social media etiquette.
    • Use the #HACTrainings hashtag as communicated during the event for any related tweets.
    • Remember that unpublished data presented at the training should be regarded as confidential, and should not be published.
    • Tweet about the training (without sharing unpublished information or data).
    • Be respectful in tone and content.
  1. Payment.  Please note that payment of all fees must be made in full and in cleared funds within 30 days of the submission of your registration. If you submit your registration less than 30 days prior to the first day of an event, then payment of all fees must be made in full prior to attending the event. Participants whose fees have not been paid by the start of the event shall be required to pay on-site.  Payments can be made using one of the following methods:
    • Check made payable to the Housing Assistance Council and posted to 1025 Vermont Ave NW, Ste 606, Washington DC 20005.
    • Credit card transactions may be made using Visa, MasterCard, American Express, or Discover, or through the registration portal.
  1. Cancellation, Substitution and Refund Policy.  Modifications, cancellations, and substitutions to registrations are time conditional as follows:
    • HAC will issue refunds with a written request received 10 or more working days prior to the event start date. Unfortunately, refund requests submitted within less than 10 days prior to the start of an event will not be honored. All refunds are subject to a $50 service fee.
    • Substitutions may be made with no penalty using the registration portal. Cancellations can be made at the registration portal.
    • All refunds (less the applicable $50 service fee) will be processed in the same manner as the original payment.
  1. Force Majeure. HAC reserves the right to defer or cancel Training Event (without liability to the Applicant) in the event of a Force Majeure.  If HAC cancels the event pursuant to clause HAC will refund the attendee, the Registration Fee. Force Majeure may include any cause which results in the failure or delay in the performance of either party’s obligations under the Agreement which arises from or is attributable to circumstances beyond the reasonable control of the defaulting party including without limitation acts of God, pandemic, epidemic, quarantine, war (declared or undeclared) strikes, labor disputes, labor unrest, governmental regulation, civil disturbance, terrorism, disaster, fire, earthquakes, hurricanes, unreasonable extreme inclement weather, curtailment of transportation facilities, public utility failure, breakdown of webhost, breakdown of internet service provider, changes in laws and regulations, declaration of a “high” or “severe” risk of terrorist attack or any other comparable condition making it inadvisable, illegal or impossible for either party to perform its obligations hereunder.
  2. Indemnification. The attendee by accepting these Terms and Conditions hereby indemnifies the Housing Assistance Council against and holds it harmless from all or any loss or damage, injury, actions, proceedings or claims arising from any act or omission of HAC during the course of the event
  3. Governing law. This Agreement shall be governed and construed in accordance with the law of Washington DC. Should you require clarification on any aspect of the event, or these terms and conditions please contact the Training Coordinator.

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