Almost 600,000 residents across roughly 12,500 properties call the USDA 515 portfolio home. 30% of these residents, over 180,000, are over the age of 62, and 13% are disabled.  Our rural communities are aging in place, and most residents are navigating these unique challenges alone.  In 2022, USDA Rural Development (RD) began allowing service coordination as a permissible operational expenditure, but this is widely underutilized across the portfolio.  Simply put, most owners and managers of 515 properties are not employing service coordinators.

What are service coordinators?  According to the American Association of Service Coordinators, the role of the service coordinator is to link residents, people with disabilities and low-income families to supportive services and other community resources. They typically have education and experience in social work or human services and are skilled at identifying the needs of the residents within the property management setting.  For elderly and disabled residents, the service coordinator can be the difference between independent living and transitioning prematurely to a skilled facility.  Service coordinators work symbiotically with property management.  They interact with residents individually and coordinate group activities that promote wellness and fellowship.  Service coordinators do not provide direct services.  For example, they won’t clean a resident’s unit, but it is their role to find a capable agency to do so if that is an identified need.

The value of resident service coordination in federally subsidized properties is well-researched, and the positive impact on the lives of residents and performance of the properties are measurable. In 1990, HUD began allowing budget-based service coordination with dedicated grants funded in 1992.  Properties with service coordination often realize an array of benefits including a more stable resident base, less unit turn, better rent collection, and a heightened sense of community.

The AARP Foundation works in conjunction with other senior advocates and recognizes that more service coordination programs would widely benefit residents of USDA’s 515 portfolio.  As a result, in 2024, the foundation awarded Housing Assistance Council (HAC) a grant that affords free technical assistance to 515 property owners and managers.  The grant pays for HAC staff time dedicated to building service coordination programs in elderly-designated 515 properties by utilizing the normal RD budget process.  2025 marked the first year of this three-year grant.  The first cohort (2025) includes six management companies and 68 properties (2,316 units total).  Although progress was slowed by the 2025 government shutdown, owners are advancing towards the end goal of fully instilling service coordination programs at each of the 68 properties.  This includes equipping the companies with training, expertise and infrastructure to support those programs for the long-term.

The first year-long cohort began in 2025 with site visits to many of the 68 properties across several states including West Virginia, Georga, Alabama, Florida, Montana, Idaho, and Indiana.  The most valuable aspect of the site visits was conversing with property managers who conveyed the needs of the residents.  A vast majority of the property managers described encountering resident issues that require social-service intervention, such as poor unit condition, missed rent payments, or general isolation and loneliness.  Even the most well-intentioned property managers simply do not have enough time in their work week to provide the level of assistance needed for many residents.  Some lack expertise, most lack time in the day.  The site visits always ended with optimism that a service coordinator could make a positive impact for everyone-the residents and the property manager alike.

HAC’s technical assistance includes making recommendations on service coordinator program logistics at each property, navigating the budget process and providing budget narratives, and providing ongoing training for management and the initial service coordinator placement.  Year 3 of the grant is dedicated to capturing resident metrics from Cohorts I and II and creating a toolkit that will be scaled so that future interested owners and managers can build service coordination programs autonomously within their 515 properties. Ultimately, HAC will turn the partnership with AARP into a playbook and set of best practices for owners of rural affordable housing to add service coordination to more properties across the nation.

HAC is currently recruiting for Cohort II (2026) and invites interested 515 owners and managers to apply.  An informational session will be conducted in the coming weeks.  Anyone interested in attending should email Angela Shuckahosee at Angela@ruralhome.org or call 216-815-0114.