Rural Rental Assistance Needs USDA’s Support to Survive

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by Leslie Strauss

The cost of USDA’s Section 521 Rental Assistance program isgrowing every year. After afunding crisis hit the program inSeptember, Congress increased its funding for fiscal year 2014, giving USDA time to reduce program costs, cut program spending, or work a little magic.

Magic seems unlikely. And some possibilities are clearly unpalatable. No one wants tenants to lose their homes because their aid ends and their rents increase. No one wants landlords to leave the affordable housing business because they can’t afford to operate with reduced income. No one wants funds to be shifted away from other rural housing programs to meet Rental Assistance needs. Fortunately, there are other options.

Read the complete post at Rooflines

No, Minimum Rents Do Not “Encourage Financial Responsibility”

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by Gideon Anders
March 13, 2014

President Obama’s 2015 Budget seeks to impose a $50 per month minimum rent on tenants living in USDA Rural Development (RD) financed Section 515 Rural Rental Housing and Section 514 and 516 Farm Labor Housing.

This will only impact extremely low-income households with adjusted annual incomes of less than $2,000. These are the absolute poorest households residing in RD housing. They typically do not have a regular source of income. RD indicates this requirement will affect about 42,000, or 10 percent, of the households living in RD rental housing…

Read the complete blog post at Rooflines

Keeping Rural Seniors in Their Homes

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Through my work researching housing for rural seniors, two things have become evident: first, rural America is older than the nation overall, and second, aging in place is the best option for seniors. “Aging in place” refers to older adults living independently in their current residences or communities for as long as possible. The vast majority of rural seniors own their own homes, so this often means remaining there; it can also be accomplished, however, by moving to a more manageable dwelling (such as a smaller apartment).

Numerous reports have proposed that aging in place… Read more

From Food to Housing: Sacrificing Quality for Quantity in the Colonias

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From Food to Housing: Sacrificing Quality for Quantity in the Colonias

In November, theWashington Postpublished an article entitled“Too Much of Too Little”about recipients of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, formerly known as food stamps, in Hidalgo County, Texas, one of the fastest growing and poorest places in the nation. The article highlighted families who are forced to choose between affordable yet unhealthy foods that keep their families fed throughout the month or healthy options that are less affordable and may not feed a family for as long. Low-income Americans dependent upon SNAP are often forced to shop “quantity over quality” in order to stretch paltry food budgets throughout the month. As a result, more and more people who do not have enough food to eat are facing obesity and diabetes at alarming rates.

Read the complete Blog post at Rooflines

Rural Lending Improves; Costs Still Higher

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Rural Lending Improves; Costs Still Higher

by Keith Wiley

After declining by more than half from 2003 to 2011, the number of rural mortgage applications increased by 19% last year. And the number of actual mortgage loans issued rose 27% from the previous year, according to data collected under the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HDMA).

Of the loan applications reported through HMDA in 2012, approximately 2.4 million, or 16%, were for mortgage loans in rural or small town communities.

Read the full blog post…

Understanding Rural Homelessness

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Understanding Rural Homelessness

by Eric Oberdorfer

understanding-homelessnessRural homelessness differs from urban and suburban homelessness. The image of an individual sleeping on the street, clearly visible to those passing by, is much less frequent in rural America.

Literal homelessness, or the condition of living on the street or in a shelter, does exist in rural America, but due to the geographic vastness of most of these areas and a lack of centralized services and resources, it is much more infrequent.

Read the complete blog post….

USDA Rural Development Notifies Rural Rental Housing Borrowers Regarding Section 521 Rental Assistance Shortfall

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514-16-affected-properties-mapIn March 2013, Congress passed a final appropriations bill for the current fiscal year. While the final language included full spending bills for USDA, it was also subject to a 5% sequester and a 2.5% across the board cut. This resulted in a reduction of approximately $65 million to the Section 521 Rental Assistance program. USDA recently notified approximately 900 of its Section 515 Rural Rental Housing and Section 514 Farm Labor Housing borrowers whose rental assistance contracts would normally be renewed about the time funds will be exhausted. This short fall is ultimately expected to impact nearly 15,000 units in approximately 600 rental projects. USDA has committed to working closely with these borrowers to maintain the financial stability of the property. HAC urges affected borrowers to begin working with USDA at the earliest possible date to address the gap in Rental Assistance. USDA’s notice and a list of affected projects are below:

Letter from USDA RD

List of Affected Properties (Excel)

Help USDA Use Section 504 funds

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With only 11 weeks remaining in FY13, USDA still has over $14 million available for Section 504 loans – more than half of the program’s appropriation. Loan funds not obligated by September 30 will be lost. Your help in getting out the word and working with RD to process loan applications is critical. All states will have access to loan funds after RD pools and redistributes the amounts not yet used in some states.

We know there is far more need than funds available for this program, which helps very low-income homeowners repair their homes. It would send the wrong message to have these sorely needed funds go unused. Please contact your local RD office and work with them to help eligible very low-income homeowners get their homes repaired!

When a Housing Advocate's Work Hits Home

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When a Housing Advocate’s Work Hits Home

By Leslie Strauss

It’s been a very long time since I saw the movie “Dr. Zhivago,” but I can remember clearly the noisy crowd the doctor finds in his family mansion when he comes home from war. The family is being forced to share their home with a dozen other families, each occupying one room.

I would hate to live that way. But on a policy level it makes some sense, well, without the overcrowding. If we divided the available space in U.S. homes by the number of people, wouldn’t there be an appropriate number of square feet per person?

Sure, forcing people to share their space would make everyone a little uncomfortable, but wouldn’t that be better than having some people live without electricity or pay more than half their income for housing every month? Just temporarily, until we find a way to provide decent, affordable, separate living spaces for everyone.

Read more…

HAC Receives Bank of America Funding

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Moises-and-Steve-Cropped_webStephen B. Fitzgerald, Senior Vice President of the Bank of America Charitable Foundation, presents a check to Moises Loza for support of HAC’s work in affordable rural housing. A key and very generous supporter of HAC for a number of years, Bank of America is also a major investor in HAC’s Rural Housing Loan Fund.

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