HAC in the News Archives

HAC President & CEO, David Lipsetz, testifies in front of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Subcommittee on Housing, Transportation, and Community Development

HAC’s CEO Testifies to Senate Banking Subcommittee on Rural Housing Reforms

May 2, 2023/in Advocacy, HAC in the News, News, Policy, Rural News Homeowner Housing, Housing Affordability, Rental Housing, U.S. Department of Agriculture

HAC was honored to be invited to testify on May 2, 2023 before the Housing, Transportation, and Community Development Subcommittee of the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs to discuss commonsense, bipartisan reforms to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Rural Housing Service (RHS) programs. HAC’s President & CEO, David Lipsetz, was one of five witnesses on the hearing panel.

The hearing was held to discuss the bipartisan Rural Housing Service Reform Act of 2023, which has been introduced by Subcommittee Chairwoman Tina Smith (D-MN) and Senator Mike Rounds (R-SD). The RHS Reform Act includes a slate of provisions to improve the multifamily, single-family, and capacity building programs at RHS. Senators Smith and Rounds engaged deeply with stakeholders on the creation of the bill, including offering a call for policy recommendations in the summer of 2022. HAC’s response to that comment opportunity can be seen here. We were thrilled to see many of our recommendations included in the bill, and applaud Senators Smith and Rounds on their thoughtful engagement with stakeholders and their commitment to improving the RHS programs.

Highlights from the RHS Reform Act include:

Multifamily
- Authorizing the Multifamily Preservation and Revitalization (MPR) program and Multifamily Preservation Technical Assistance Program
- Allowing for the decoupling of a Section 515 mortgage and Section 521 Rental Assistance
- Allowing Section 542 rural vouchers to be adjusted based on changes in tenant income
- Streamlining the process for Section 515 nonprofit transfers and increasing the Section 515 nonprofit set aside
Single Family
- Establishing the Native CDFI Section 502 relending program
- Increasing the threshold for the mortgage requirement on a Section 504 home rehab loan from $7,500 to $15,000
- Extending the loan term for a Section 502 loan up to 40 years
Capacity Building
- Authorizing the Rural Community Development Initiative (RCDI) and waiving the matching funds requirement for groups working in areas of persistent poverty
- Requiring RHS to publish more data on their housing programs
- Authorizing funding for much needed technology upgrades at RHS

Watch the Recording Read David’s Testimony HAC’s 2023 Policy Priorities

News Coverage

“Rural housing crunch ‘ripe and ready’ for legislative fix, lawmakers say” – The Hill

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

February 9, 2023/in Events, HAC in the News, News, Policy Homeowner Housing, Housing Affordability, Housing Occupancy, Housing Problems, Housing Structure Type, Persistent Poverty, Rental Housing, Rental Housing Development and Preservation, Rural Policy, Self-Help Housing

HAC was deeply honored by an invitation to testify at the first hearing held in the new 118^th 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.

Read Lance’s Statement

Lance George

HAC’s Director of Research & Information

Watch the Hearing

CityLab looks at the link between housing and the opioid crisis

January 3, 2017/in HAC in the News

CityLab discussed the the link between the need for access to affordable housing and how it exacerbates the growing opioid crisis in rural America with Dr. Alan Morgan, Director of the National Rural Health Association. Dr. Morgan was a Keynote Speaker at the HAC 2016 Rural Housing Conference, where he stressed the importance of working together across industry silos to combat the opioid epidemic.

HAC Partners with Local Organization in Rhode Island

November 8, 2016/in HAC in the News

Seven Rhode Island families hope to move into their new Colonial-style, single-family houses before the holidays thanks to NeighborWorks Blackstone River Valley. The families are selected based on income, credit, and employment criteria, including having earnings between 50-80% of the area median income for Providence County. For more than a year, they have contributed about 30 hours of work per week building the houses. They have worked together, building each other’s homes in phases. Their “sweat equity” has cut costs nearly in half by building about 65% of the homes, with licensed professionals hired to do the electrical and plumbing work requiring expertise. Through the program, the USDA offers the homeowners low-interest loans based on their incomes to make owning a home affordable. In addition, the Housing Assistance Council provided funding to the Fernwood housing development to help make building the homes a reality. Read the article here!

HAC Praises Bipartisan Congressional Action on Affordable Housing

July 22, 2016/in HAC in the News

The Kansas City Star recently published a Letter to the Editor submitted jointly by HAC Executive Director Moises Loza and Housing Specialist Stephanie Nichols in praise of HR 3700, the bipartisan housing legislation which recently passed through Congress. The full text of the letter as it appears on the Stars’ website appears below.

Bipartisan effort

Last week, to minimal fanfare, Congress unanimously passed HR 3700, substantive housing legislation that saves money, cuts red tape and increases opportunities for our most vulnerable to live in decent homes and safe neighborhoods.

Leveraging their leadership on a key Financial Services subcommittee, Missouri congressmen Blaine Luetkemeyer and Emanuel Cleaver eschewed partisanship and brought together a disparate coalition of industries, nonprofits and social-justice advocates to support the bill, also known as the Housing Opportunities Through Modernization Act.

Missourians ought to know that two of their congressmen did the hard work of legislating instead of grandstanding, and the low-income communities that we serve are stronger because of their actions.

Moises Loza
Executive Director
Housing AssistanceCouncil

Stephanie Nichols
Midwestern office
Program manager
Kansas City

Cathedral Square Coporation begins construction of Green Senior Housing

May 11, 2016/in HAC in the News

HAC would like to congratulate Cathedral Squar Corporation (CSC) as they begin construction of Elm Place, Vermont’s first multi-family building certified to Passive House standards. The super energy-efficient building will provide thirty affordable, one-bedroom apartments for low-income seniors in Milton, VT, a rural community with a population of 10,300. Support And Services at Home (SASH) will be offered to residents at no cost.

HAC provided a $19000 grant in October 2013 to CSC for predevelopment costs in connection with this project.

Project summary

The goals of the development are to create a green building in a smart growth town center area close to services and transportation, to engage the community in building support and having a responsive design, and to incorporate a design which facilitates the Support and Services at Home (SASH) care coordination initiative to support aging in place. This grant enabled CSC to grow a concept into a real development with traction.

CSC hopes to expand the capacity of CSC’s housing program and SASH initiative into the Milton Community and develop the capacity of staff and commitment to green building, improving accessibility and SASH implementation.

This HAC grant provided a critical boost to CSC to build its capacity in green building and accessibility.