Rural Voices Archives

Rural Voices: Rental Housing in Rural Areas

October 15, 1999/in Rural Voices

The Fall 1999 issue of Rural Voices is dedicated to the importance of rental housing.

Homeownership generates excitement among policymakers and funders- and, indeed, it is important that we strive to increase homeownership. Yet not everyone can or wants to own their home, and renters should also have decent, affordable homes.

Unfortunately, decent, affordable housing is not always an option for rural renters. This magazine includes data showing that millions of rural renters pay too much and/or live in substandard or overcrowded homes. The articles in this issue, like the photos on the cover, illustrate some of the many aspects of rental housing in rural areas. Two of the articles present rental housing success stories. A third article describes actions that may be taken to address problems arising from prepayments of HUD-funded rental properties, and the View From Washington department explains why a new rural rental housing program should be proposed.

This Rural Voices issue does not cover prepayment and preservation of Section 515 units. Preservation is an important subject and, as noted in the summer issue of the magazine, HAC has joined a wide variety of organizations in a working group on this topic. The working group is still collecting background information and formulating its recommendations; its report will be covered in a later issue of Rural Voices when appropriate.

Rural Voices: Housing in the Rural Midwest

July 15, 1999/in Rural Voices

The Summer 1999 issue of Rural Voices celebrates two events, the passing of the Housing Act of 1949 and the opening of HAC’s fourth regional office is Kansas City, MO. In some ways these events are very different, but both are part of improving housing for rural Americans.

The first event occurred in 1949. That summer, exactly 50 years ago, the Housing Act of 1949 became law and created the first of the rural housing programs we still use today. From relatively small beginnings – a Section 502 direct loan program for homeownership and a Section 504 loan and grant program for home repairs, both available only to farmers – the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s rural housing programs have grown to a lengthy list of tools for financing better housing, and have improved the homes of many tens of thousands of rural residents. In honor of the programs’ anniversary, Rural Voices explores the passage of the 1949 Act, examines some changes over the last 50 years, and describes the historical beginnings of the popular self-help housing program.

The second event happened in late May this year. The Housing Assistance Council formally dedicated its fourth regional office. Located in Kansas City, Mo., and focused on serving the Midwest, this field office joins others in Atlanta, Ga.; Albuquerque, N.M.; and Mill Valley, Calif. Housing programs in the Midwest are not a new topic for Rural Voices, but this issue does emphasize that part of the country. One article provides an overview of rural housing conditions in the Midwest, and another describes the successes achieved by one community action agency in Kansas.

More good news is provided in our View From Washington department, which describes funding increases likely to be adopted for rural housing in fiscal year 2000.

Rural Voices: A Place for Everyone

April 15, 1999/in Rural Voices

The Spring 1999 issue of Rural Voices highlights some of the rural housing community’s successes in providing a place for everyone.

“A Place for Everyone” – the theme of the recent National Rural Housing Conference – could serve as the motto for much of the rural housing community’s work. Every day, through many different activities, we try to ensure a decent, affordable place for those most often forgotten in our national housing efforts.

The Spring 1999 issue of Rural Voices highlights some of the rural housing community’s successes in providing a place for everyone. It reviews the December 1998 conference, including the awards HAC presented to five outstanding individuals for their rural housing work, and the winners of the children’s art contest held at the conference. Also, an article describes a collaboration between Freddie Mac, Rural Opportunities, Inc., and others to help create a place for everyone by providing mortgages for families who could not obtain conventional loans. Another piece explains how local rural housing developers can use Community 2020 mapping software to illustrate housing conditions and needs. Other recent developments and activities are summarized in the HAC Facts and View From Washington departments.

We look forward to continuing to work with you to provide a place for everyone.

Rural Voices: Aspiring Homeowners Receive Assistance

January 15, 1999/in Rural Voices

The features in the Winter 1998-99 issue of Rural Voices examine some important aspects of homeownership and some useful types of assistance.

Homeownership is a prominent goal in much of our nation’s current housing policy. For low- and moderate-income families, homeownership requires more than subsidized interest rates and means more than having a place to live. The features in the Winter 1998-99 issue of Rural Voices examine some important aspects of homeownership and some useful types of assistance.

The lead article demonstrates the role of subsidized rental housing, supportive services, and self-help construction in a farmworker family’s path from homelessness to homeownership. Counseling services are helpful- perhaps even essential – and another article describes the work of the new American Homeowner Education and Counseling Institute. Individual Development Accounts (IDAs) are also relatively new. Their potential for helping aspiring homebuyers to save for downpayments and other needs is described in a Q&A with an IDA activist.

Rural Voices: 30 Years of Fair Housing in Rural America

August 15, 1998/in Rural Voices

The Summer 1998 issue of Rural Voices is dedicated to highlighting these fair housing and NIMBY issues.

First, an article by a national fair housing nonprofit organization provides an overview of the fair housing movement in this country and its impact. Other articles describe the approaches adopted by the state of California and a local nonprofit in Oregon to combat NIMBY opposition to affordable housing projects. An interview with Eva Plaza, assistant secretary for Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity at the Depmtment of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) , is also included.

The Spring 1998 Issue of Rural Voices - Cover

Rural Voices: States Help Produce Affordable Rural Housing

April 15, 1998/in Rural Voices

The Spring 1998 issue of Rural Voices examines some of the ways states have become involved. Any one of these methods could be duplicated in states that have not yet tried them.

State funds, and state agencies administering federal funds, are essential in developing affordable rural housing This issue of Rural Voices examines some of the ways states have become involved. Any one of these methods could be duplicated in states that have not yet tried them. First, an expert on housing trust funds explains how states have used those dedicated revenue sources to improve rural housing conditions. Other articles describe efforts in Iowa and Oklahoma to make state-administered .fimds more available in rural areas. Iowa has designed a collaborative application process, now being adopted by other states as well. Oklahoma analyzed housing needs in fast-growing rural parts of the state and targeted funds to help meet those needs.

Continuing Rural Voices’ coverage of welfare reform, this issue also includes an article describing welfare reform in Minnesota, starting with a pilot program initiated by the state before changes were adopted at the federal level. The magazine’s View from Washington department examines the possibility of enacting housing legislation during 1998 before Congress adjourns for elections in the fall. As always, the HAC Facts department summarizes some of the Housing Assistance Council’s recent activities.

Rural Voices: Housing and Economic Development

January 15, 1998/in Rural Voices

The Winter 1997-98 issue of Rural Voices highlights the intesection of Housing and Economic Development in rural areas.

Housing problems and economic problems go together in rural America. It often seems like a good idea to tackle both at once, but how? To what extent can housing development itself stimulate a local economy? What are the risks and rewards for a housing organization expanding into job creation, employment training, or business activities? This issue of Rural Voices includes two articles addressing these important questions.

First, the cover st01y examines the many positive economic impacts of housing development and suggests anumber of economic activities that fit well with housing endeavors. The second article explores factors a housing organization should consider in deciding whether to venture into economic development. Other timely subjects are included in this issue as well. A range of topics is covered in an interview with Nicolas P. Retsinas, until recently a top official at the Department of Housing and Urban Development and now the director of the joint Center for Housing Studies at Harvard University. An expanded View fi·om Washington examines the impact of the Clinton Administration’s proposed budget on the Rural Housing Service’s programs that serve the poorest rural residents by producing low-cost rental housing and assisting tenants with rent payments.

The Fall 1997 Issue of Rural Voices - Cover

Rural Voices: Housing Nonprofits Working with State Housing Finance Agencies

October 15, 1997/in Rural Voices

Articles in this Fall 1997 issue feature two important topics: the role of states, and nonprofit management.

First, an experienced regional nonprofit developer presents suggestions for working with state housing finance agencies, which have become a major source of housing development funds. Another possible role for state agencies is explored in an article about New York state’s provision of administrative funds for nonprofit housing developers. Next, the head of a regional housing provider discusses some of the lessons nonprofit managers can learn from big-name management experts. The director of a consortium of nonprofits describes a new on-line job bank. Finally, out· View from Washington feature outlines the current status of housing funding and programs for federal fiscal year 1998, which began October 1.

Rural Voices: Rural America Celebrates National Homeownership Month

July 15, 1997/in Rural Voices

The Summer 1997 issue or Rural Voices celebrates National Homeownership Month across the U.S., and examines other rural housing topics.

Homeownership has been an important focus of national rural housing policy for some time, and has received particular attention in the last two years under President Clinton’s National Homeownership Strategy. This issue of Rural Voices takes its inspiration from National Homeownership Week, June 7-14. Our contributors provide an overview of the week from a national perspective, and a closer look at some of the events that took place in rural areas. A third article describes a homeownership program in Utah called CROWN that provides low-income renters with an option to purchase homes built with Low Income Housing Tax Credit financing.

Other important rural housing topics are also covered in this issue. A feature article explains the special housing needs of persons with AIDS in rural areas, and some ways to address those needs. Provisions of state welfare programs are summarized in a chart compiled by the National Alliance to End Homelessness. The “View from Washington” column explains the current debate about sampling in the 2000 Census, and how it could affect rural housing HAC’s fall regional training sessions are announced in “HAC Facts,” along with a few of HAC’s recent loans and new publications on farm worker housing and joint ventures.

Rural Voices: Welfare Reform Impacts Rural Housing

April 15, 1997/in Rural Voices

The Spring 1997 issue of Rural Voices provides an overview of the 1996 federal Welfare Reform Act and a summary of ways in which it may affect rural housing conditions.

This issue of Rural Voices focuses on welfare reform, one of the most important public policy issues of the 1990s. We hope to begin a conversation here about how welfare reform is affecting housing for low-income people in rural areas nationwide. This issue provides an overview of the 1996 federal Welfare Reform Act and a summary of ways in which it may affect rural housing conditions; an examination of welfare reform s impact on women-headed households, who as a group are the poorest category of households and the most likely to be affected; a description of some results of changes in Georgias state welfare program; and a look at how immigration reform affects Rural Housing Service programs.

In future issues we expect to include articles about welfare reform in other specific areas of the countty. We welcome contributions from readers about the impact welfare reform is having on rural housing conditions in your areas. The current issue of Rural Voices also recognizes the loss of an eloquent voice for rural housing and community development. George W. Rucker died in May after a long camer in rural research.