For over 40 years, HAC has improved the housing conditions for the rural poor with an emphasis on the poorest of the poor in the most rural places. Since its modest beginnings with a $2 million War on Poverty grant in 1971, HAC has been able to successfully fund rural affordable housing, inform sound policy on rural housing programs, build capacity for local housing providers, and become the nation’s foremost source of information on rural housing.
Since the organization’s founding, the loan fund has been at the core of HAC’s overarching mission to improve housing conditions for the poorest of the poor in the most rural places. Central to these activities is a goal of building capacity in local communities to address affordable housing needs.
In March 1972, the HAC loan committee approved its first 10 loans, totaling $647,476, to support affordable housing and infrastructure development opportunities in rural communities across the nation. HAC’s early loans were committed to a varied group of housing developers located in diverse, rural communities across the nation. Demonstrating HAC’s ongoing commitment to meeting the needs of the poorest of the poor, the loans supported the development of farmworker housing units in New York State and Texas, as well as newly created self-help housing projects from California to Maryland.
Ultimately, the loans led to the development and rehabilitation of more than 1,000 rental and homeownership units, as well as important infrastructure connections.
As the world of affordable housing finance has become more complex, HAC’s loan fund and its products have evolved to meet those needs.
Throughout the early 1980s, the landscape for affordable housing changed rapidly. An economic recession had shaken the housing market and interest rates had risen drastically. Combined with a rise in challenges for small family farmers, and the massive scaling back or elimination of many government antipoverty programs, the need for an affordable housing response, particularly affordable rental housing, became clear. In 1982 to meet the growing demand for affordable rental properties in the nation’s poorest communities, HAC created a subsidiary, Rural Housing Services, Inc., to develop affordable rental units in partnership with local organizations using tax credits.
As the world of affordable housing finance has become more complex, HAC’s loan fund and its products have evolved to meet those needs.
The 1990s brought a new framework for affordable housing – as direct federal funding for antipoverty efforts decreased, Community Development Financials Institutions, or CDFIs, increased in popularity. In 1996, HAC’s loan fund was transformed with the introduction of the Self-Help Homeownership Opportunity Program (SHOP). SHOP is a program of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), created by Congress, that funds site acquisition and infrastructure development for affordable housing units that will be created through a sweat equity model. Local self-help housing developers receive funding in the form of recoverable grants from HAC to complete these development activities. HAC also officially became a CDFI in 1996, and the size of the loan fund continued to increase.
Today, HAC continues to rise to new challenges. With the collapse of the housing markets in 2008 and the economic recession, home values fell to unexpected lows and foreclosure rates increased steadily. To respond to this crisis, HAC renewed its dedication to capacity building measures through organizational trainings, funding, and research activities.
Photo: CASA of Oregon
For over 45 years, HAC has been at the forefront of providing safe, secure, affordable housing in rural areas. HAC has, and will continue to, meet each new challenge head on to ensure that the poorest of the poor, in the most rural places receive attentionand support through our loan fund, training and technical assistance, and research and information divisions.
Skip Jason Community Service Award
Cochran/Collings Award for Distinguished Service in Housing
Henry B. González Award
Past Recipients of the Skip Jason Award
The Skip Jason Community Service Award acknowledges people whose efforts have improved the housing conditions of the rural poor in their communities.
The award acknowledges people who work “in the trenches” and usually go unrecognized outside their communities. The award was originally called the Community Service Award and was named for Robert “Skip” Jason, a long-time housing activist with considerable community experience, after he died in 1982 while employed as HAC’s Government Services Director.
SKIP JASON (1939-1982)
Robert Mayer (Skip) Jason, a former HAC employee and housing advocate, was committed to improving living conditions for the rural poor.
Skip was a native of Bluefield, West Virginia where he first learned about the challenges facing poor rural residents. In 1963, he became one of the first Peace Corp Volunteers to be sent to East Pakistan (now Bangladesh).
Upon his return to the United States, he worked for community action agencies in Indiana, West Virginia, Vermont, and the District of Columbia. In 1974, he helped to set up Buffalo Housing, Inc. in southern West Virginia, a nonprofit organization established to help victims of the Buffalo Creek flood disaster.
Skip first joined HAC in its Atlanta office. In 1978, he moved to HAC’s Government Services Division in Washington, D.C. As a HAC employee, he worked on the Community Development Block Grant program, which included a set-aside for small cities and rural communities. Skip was also instrumental in developing the Farmers Home Administration’s Homeownership Assistance Program which, although never funded, resulted in a Congress that was more supportive and more aware of rural housing issues.
Past Recipients of the Cochran/Collings Award
The Cochran/Collings Award for Distinguished Service in Housing honors individuals who have provided outstanding and enduring service, with national impact, for the betterment of housing conditions for the rural poor.
The award is named for two men who dedicated their careers to improving housing for rural Americans.
CLAY COCHRAN (1915-1982)
Clay L. Cochran was a fierce housing advocate who has often been credited as the founder of the U.S. rural housing movement. Clay, a fiery commentator on housing and basic needs, strongly believed that the federal government must not shirk its responsibility of providing basic shelter for low-income rural people. He also believed that the people, given the power to govern themselves, had the capacity to “create a society where there is less human anguish than yesterday.”
Some of his many accomplishments were to organize the Rural Housing Alliance, Rural America, the National Rural Housing Coalition, and the International Self-Help Housing Association. He claimed that his enthusiasm for decent housing resulted from a winter during his teens when his family lost its farm and lived out the coldest months in a tent on the West Texas plains.
ART COLLINGS (1928-2010)
Arthur M. (Art) Collings, Jr. began working in rural housing in 1955. He started in New Jersey as an assistant county supervisor at the Farmers Home Administration (FmHA), quickly moving up to county supervisor and then to a variety of other positions in New Jersey and Washington, D.C.
Beginning in 1972, the year in which the newly created Housing Assistance Council began hiring staff, Art’s jobs at FmHA alternated with periods at HAC. He served as special assistant to FmHA Administrator Gordon Cavanaugh from 1977 to 1980. From 1986 until his reluctant retirement at the end of 2004, Art served as HAC’s senior housing specialist.
Gordon Cavanaugh, HAC’s first executive director, once explained that he hired Art because he was told Art was the most liberal staffer at FmHA. “He taught the rest of us everything we knew,” said Cavanaugh. “Arthur was just extraordinarily dedicated, well informed, and a good-humored gentleman.”
Art wrote dozens of publications about USDA’s rural housing programs, from manuals on how to use them to analyses of how they could be improved. He authored a number of amendments to these programs, advised people all over the country on their use, and conducted countless training sessions.
Art’s dedication to improving housing conditions for low-income rural Americans was unmatched. His feistiness and humor, added to his extensive knowledge of USDA’s rural housing programs, made him unique, sometimes frustrating to work with, and well-loved around the country.
Past Recipients of the Henry B. González Award
The Henry B. González Award recognizes individuals who have contributed to the improvement of housing conditions for low-income rural Americans through elected office.
REP. HENRY B. GONZALEZ
The award is named for Rep. Henry B. González, who represented the 20th District of Texas in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1961 until ill health forced him to retire in 1998.
Beginning in 1981, he chaired first the House Subcommittee on Housing and Community Development and eventually the full Committee on Banking, Finance, and Urban Affairs (now the Financial Services Committee). In these powerful positions he championed numerous bills to improve housing conditions for people in both urban and rural areas. Rep. Gonzalez passed away in 2000.
The Southwest Regional Office primarily provides Technical Assistance and Training in the states of: Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Texas, Utah, and Wyoming.
Southwest Office
P.O. Box 315
San Miguel, NM 88058
Tel.:(505) 883-1003
Gene Gonzales, Director
Anselmo Telles, Housing Development Specialist
Southeast Regional Office: Providing Technical Assistance and Training to the Organizations which Help the Poorest of the Poor
Southeast Regional Office
55 Marietta St
Suite 1350
Atlanta, GA 30303
Tel.: 404-892-4824
Fax: 404-892-1204
E-mail:southeast@ruralhome.org
The Southeast Regional Office primarily provides Technical Assistance and Training in the states of: Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee.
Staff List
Shonterria Charleston, Training and Technical Assistance DirectorChristina Adeshakin, Housing Specialist
Kelly Cooney, Housing Specialist
Providing Technical Assistance and Training in America’s Heartland
Midwest Regional Office
Housing Assistance Council
5559 NW Barry Road
Mailbox #356
Kansas City, MO 64154
Tel.: (816) 880-0400
Fax: (816) 880-0500
Stephanie Nichols, Project Manager
The Midwest Regional Office primarily provides Technical Assistance and Training in the states of: Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Dakota, and Wisconsin.
HAC Privacy Policy
Effective date: April 16, 2018
Housing Assistance Council (“us”, “we”, or “our”) operates the https://ruralhome.org website and the HAC Trainings mobile application (the “Service”).
This page informs you of our policies regarding the collection, use, and disclosure of personal data when you use our Service and the choices you have associated with that data.
We use your data to provide and improve the Service. By using the Service, you agree to the collection and use of information in accordance with this policy. Unless otherwise defined in this Privacy Policy, terms used in this Privacy Policy have the same meanings as in our Terms and Conditions.
We collect several different types of information for various purposes to provide and improve our Service to you.
While using our Service, we may ask you to provide us with certain personally identifiable information that can be used to contact or identify you (“Personal Data”). Personally identifiable information may include, but is not limited to:
We may also collect information that your browser sends whenever you visit our Service or when you access the Service by or through a mobile device (“Usage Data”).
This Usage Data may include information such as your computer’s Internet Protocol address (e.g. IP address), browser type, browser version, the pages of our Service that you visit, the time and date of your visit, the time spent on those pages, unique device identifiers and other diagnostic data.
When you access the Service by or through a mobile device, this Usage Data may include information such as the type of mobile device you use, your mobile device unique ID, the IP address of your mobile device, your mobile operating system, the type of mobile Internet browser you use, unique device identifiers and other diagnostic data.
We use cookies and similar tracking technologies to track the activity on our Service and hold certain information.
Cookies are files with small amount of data which may include an anonymous unique identifier. Cookies are sent to your browser from a website and stored on your device. Tracking technologies also used are beacons, tags, and scripts to collect and track information and to improve and analyze our Service.
You can instruct your browser to refuse all cookies or to indicate when a cookie is being sent. However, if you do not accept cookies, you may not be able to use some portions of our Service.
Examples of Cookies we use:
If you do not want this site to place a cookie on your browser and track your activity, you may leave the site or you may browse the site using privacy mode in your web browser. To learn how to use privacy mode, refer to the links below depending on the browser you use.
Housing Assistance Council uses the collected data for various purposes:
Your information, including Personal Data, may be transferred to — and maintained on — computers located outside of your state, province, country or other governmental jurisdiction where the data protection laws may differ than those from your jurisdiction.
If you are located outside United States and choose to provide information to us, please note that we transfer the data, including Personal Data, to United States and process it there.
Your consent to this Privacy Policy followed by your submission of such information represents your agreement to that transfer.
Housing Assistance Council will take all steps reasonably necessary to ensure that your data is treated securely and in accordance with this Privacy Policy and no transfer of your Personal Data will take place to an organization or a country unless there are adequate controls in place including the security of your data and other personal information.
Housing Assistance Council may disclose your Personal Data in the good faith belief that such action is necessary to:
The security of your data is important to us, but remember that no method of transmission over the Internet, or method of electronic storage is 100% secure. While we strive to use commercially acceptable means to protect your Personal Data, we cannot guarantee its absolute security.
We may employ third party companies and individuals to facilitate our Service (“Service Providers”), to provide the Service on our behalf, to perform Service-related services or to assist us in analyzing how our Service is used.
These third parties have access to your Personal Data only to perform these tasks on our behalf and are obligated not to disclose or use it for any other purpose.
We may use third-party Service Providers to monitor and analyze the use of our Service.
Google Analytics is a web analytics service offered by Google that tracks and reports website traffic. Google uses the data collected to track and monitor the use of our Service. This data is shared with other Google services. Google may use the collected data to contextualize and personalize the ads of its own advertising network.
For more information on the privacy practices of Google, please visit the Google Privacy & Terms web page: https://policies.google.com/privacy?hl=en
Microsoft Dynamics 365
Dynamics 365 is a set of intelligent business applications that help organizations run their entire business and deliver greater results through predictive, AI-driven insights. HAC utilized Dynamics 365 Customer Relationship Manager (CRM) and Customer Voice to gather marketing contacts, track business activities, and distribute marketing communications to the HAC audience. HAC does not share this data with external parties.
To learn more about Microsoft’s privacy policies, visit https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/privacy/
Our Service may contain links to other sites that are not operated by us. If you click on a third-party link, you will be directed to that third party’s site. We strongly advise you to review the Privacy Policy of every site you visit.
We have no control over and assume no responsibility for the content, privacy policies or practices of any third-party sites or services.
Our Service does not address anyone under the age of 18 (“Children”).
We do not knowingly collect personally identifiable information from anyone under the age of 18. If you are a parent or guardian and you are aware that your Children has provided us with Personal Data, please contact us. If we become aware that we have collected Personal Data from children without verification of parental consent, we take steps to remove that information from our servers.
We may update our Privacy Policy from time to time. We will notify you of any changes by posting the new Privacy Policy on this page.
We will let you know via email and/or a prominent notice on our Service, prior to the change becoming effective and update the “effective date” at the top of this Privacy Policy.
You are advised to review this Privacy Policy periodically for any changes. Changes to this Privacy Policy are effective when they are posted on this page.
If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, please contact us:
HAC’s Training and Technical Assistance assist rural organizations to improve housing conditions for the rural poor, with an emphasis on the poorest of the poor in the most rural places. The division focuses on developing the capacity of local leaders in nonprofit organizations to help their own communities. This is done by providing formal trainings, one-on-one technical assistance and connecting local organizations to resources which can build their capacity and strengthen their community.
HAC leads a board governance training for Community Housing Ministries in St. Joseph, MO
HAC offers a range of capacity building technical assistance services for organizations in rural areas. Unlike many national organizations, HAC is not a membership organization and has an “open-door” policy with regard to technical assistance. If your organization is looking for guidance on a housing project, organizational development or compliance issues, fill out our TA request and HAC will get back to you as soon as possible.
“But for” HAC our organization would not have been able to develop the housing that it has over the past 28 years. HAC has lent pre-development funds to “all but” every one of our developments in New York State. -Comment from HAC’s Stakeholder Survey
To keep updated on HAC’s training and conference plans, subscribe to the HAC News or Get information on HAC trainings and conferences on TWITTER! HAC’s Twitter feed is at @RuralHome. To get started, visit https://www.twitter.com.
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Upcoming Trainings
Materials from the 2012 HAC Conference
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Past TrainingsMay 15, 2013: USDA Section 502 Direct Loan and Section 504 Loan and Elderly Grant Repair – An Overview May 1, 2013: The Silver Tsunami: Are We Prepared for a Senior Population Boom in Rural America? April 23-25, 2013: Sustainable Affordable Housing: Developing Healthy and Energy Efficient Homes for CHDOs in Las Cruces, NM March 20-21, 2013: Asset Management Training in Jackson, MS March 13, 2013: Conducting Homeless Counts on Native American Lands September 19, 2012: Green Building Webinar September 5-7, 2012: Building HOME and Lead Paint in Columbia, SC August 21-23, 2012: Sustainable Affordable Housing: Developing Healthy and Energy Efficient Homes for CHDOs in Kansas City, MO June 28, 2012: Mapping Poverty in Rural America – Presentation, Powerpoint, Poverty Materials May16, 2012: Grant Writing April 24-26, 2012: Section 502 Packaging Training for Nonprofit Developers in Milwaukee, WI. April 24, 2012: Rural Housing: New Opportunities for Alabama in Thomasville, AL April 18, 2012: Fundraising for Nonprofits – Presentation, Powerpoint March 21, 2012: Strategic Planning – Webinar Materials. March 20-21, 2012: Advanced Financial Management 2011: December 5-6 Construction Management and Advanced Financial Management 2011: December 1-2 Construction Management and Advanced Financial Management 2011: November 15-16 Construction Management and Advanced Financial Management 2011: November 9-10. Housing Seniors in Rural America: Aging in Place in a Shifting Landscape in Seattle, WA.
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Positions Available
Check back with this space for future job postings from HAC. |
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TO APPLY FOR A POSITION AT HAC:No Phone Calls Please! Follow the application instructions in the job description, or send cover letter along with salary history/requirements and resume to HAC@ruralhome.org. Be sure to reference the job title in the subject line. Hard copy applications can be sent to Housing Assistance Council, 1025 Vermont Avenue, NW, Suite 606, Washington, DC 20005, Attn: “job title”. All positions are located in the Washington, DC office unless otherwise noted. HAC IS AN EQUAL OPPORTUNITY EMPLOYER HAC is an Equal Opportunity Employer. HAC does not discriminate in hiring or employment practices on the basis of race, color, ethnicity, gender, national origin, age, religion, sexual orientation, disability, marital or familial status, ancestry, or status as a veteran. HAC is committed to maintaining a multicultural work environment. Women and minorities are strongly encouraged to apply. Updated June 11, 2012 |