Rural America is Losing its Affordable Rural Rental Housing
A Looming Crisis
A Crisis: The increasing lack of affordable housing is not just an urban problem. Rental housing options in rural America are not only sparse, but also declining. An important source of housing in many rural communities are rental homes financed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). Today there are over 13,000 USDA rental properties providing more than 415,000 affordable homes to families and individuals across rural America.
No new USDA direct-financed rental housing has been developed in years, and the existing properties are increasingly losing their affordability provisions. The impacts of this trend are problematic for rural renters and communities.
A Platform for Preservation: The Housing Assistance Council conducted a comprehensive assessment of USDA’s multi-family housing investments to better understand this issue and inform strategies that preserve this resource for rural communities and residents.
