I love the National Rural Housing Conference because it never fails to inspire me. This year was no different. Over three days, we reconnected as an industry, learned together, and began to work through some of the most challenging questions facing our communities. Thank you for being a part of this extraordinary conference.

We can only achieve an ambitious vision by working together.

This year was our 20^th biennial conference and celebrated HAC’s 50^th Anniversary. With such big round numbers, we launched a Vision 2071 campaign to guide the work of rural housing over the next 50 years. HAC started the conversation with a vision for everyone in Rural America to have a safe, decent, and affordable place to call home and strive for a Rural America where people feel connected to their communities.

We are inviting everyone to help form the vision and help put it into action. HAC is committed to expanding our work and raising funds to support more rural housing providers, but we can’t do it alone. We can only achieve an ambitious vision by working together.

We would love to count you as a supporter of our work. Please consider contributing to the work at www.vision2071.org and include HAC in your end-of-year giving. You can donate here or by contacting jennifer@ruralhome.org. Together, we can make this vision of rural America a reality by 2071.

While the Conference and Vision 2071 have us looking to the future, I don’t want to forget to celebrate the wins of our recent past. 2021 was one heck of a year. I am proud that the HAC community leveraged over $14 million in HAC loan funds to build and maintain 720 affordable rural homes. Plus, more than 50 housing organizations recognized a need in their communities and came to HAC for technical assistance to address that need. I can’t wait to see what we can accomplish together in 2022.