Tag Archive for: Rural Housing

Past Recipients of HAC’s Rural Housing Service Awards

What are the Rural Housing Service Awards?

Once every two years at the HAC Rural Housing Conference, HAC acknowledges rural housing leaders whose efforts have led to improved housing in rural America. The Cochran/Collings Award for Distinguished Service in Housing for the Rural Poor honors individuals who have provided outstanding and enduring service, with national impact, for the betterment of housing conditions for the rural poor. The Skip Jason Community Service Award recognizes individuals whose efforts have improved the housing conditions of the rural poor in their communities. Below is a list of past awardees.

2020 Awardees

2018 Awardees

Skip Jason Award

Cochran/Collings Award
Henry B. González Award

2016 Awardees

Skip Jason Award

Cochran/Collings Award
Henry B. González Award

2014 Awardees

Skip Jason Award
Cochran/Collings Award
  • The Honorable Christopher “Kit” Bond, U.S. Senate (Retired), Missouri
Henry B. González Award

2012 Awardees

Skip Jason Award
Cochran/Collings Award
  • Shirley Sherrod, Founder, The Sherrod Institute, Albany, Georgia
Henry B. González Award
  • The Honorable Barney Frank, U.S. House of Representatives (D – Massachusetts)

2010 Awardees

Skip Jason Award
Cochran/Collings Award
Henry B. González Award

2008 Awardees

Skip Jason Award
Cochran/Collings Award
Henry B. González Award
  • The Honorable Geoff Davis, U.S. House of Representatives (R-Kentucky)
  • The Honorable Ed Pastor, U.S. House of Representatives (D-Arizona)

2006 Awardees

Skip Jason Award
Clay Cochran Award
  • The Honorable Rubén Hinojosa, U.S. House of Representatives (D-Texas)

2004 Awardees

Skip Jason Award
Clay Cochran Award
Special Recognition
  • The Honorable Artur Davis, U.S. House of Representatives (D-Alabama)
  • The Honorable Rubén Hinojosa, U.S. House of Representatives (D-Texas)
  • The Honorable Rick Renzi, U.S. House of Representatives (R-Arizona)
  • The Honorab
    le Rep. Walsh, U.S. House of Representatives
  • Harry Bowie, HAC Board of Directors
  • Art Collings, HAC Staff

2002 Awardees

Skip Jason Award
  • Lynn Luallen, Chief Executive Officer, Kentucky Housing Corporation, Frankfort, Kentucky
  • Madeleine Miller, Executive Director, Wil-Low Nonprofit Housing, Hayneville, Alabama
Clay Cochran Award

2000 Awardees

Skip Jason Award
  • Lauretta Brice Stephens, Florida Non-Profit Housing, Inc., Sebring, Florida
  • Cora Esquibel, Arizona
  • Arturo C. Gonzales, Southeastern Wisconsin Housing Corporation, Burlington, Wisconsin
  • Dana M. Jones, Southern Maryland Tri-County Community Action Association, Hughesville, Maryland
Clay Cochran Award
  • Eileen Fitzgerald, Washington, DC

1998 Awardees

Skip Jason Award
  • Guillermo Castaneda
  • Dwayne Yost
  • John Zippert
Clay Cochran Award
  • Arnold Sternberg

1996 Awardees

Skip Jason Award
Clay Cochran Award
  • Maureen Kennedy, Former Administrator, Rural Housing Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Washington, DC
Special HAC 25th Anniversary Award
  • The Honorable Henry B. González (D-Texas), U.S. House of Representatives

1994 Awardees

Skip Jason Award
Clay Cochran Award
  • The Honorable Eva M. Clayton, U.S. House of Representatives (D-North Carolina)
  • The Honorable Bennie G. Thompson, U.S. House of Representatives (D-Mississippi)

1991 Awardees

Skip Jason Award
  • Bessie Swann
  • Ted Smith (posthumous award)
Clay Cochran Award

1985 Awardees

Skip Jason Award
  • James Wilcox
Clay Cochran Award
  • Art Collings

1983 Awardees

Skip Jason Award
Clay Cochran Award

1981 Awardees

Community Service Award
  • Moriah Milton, Hardwood, Louisiana
Clay Cochran Award
  • Gordon Cavanaugh, former Executive Director, Housing Assistance Council, and former Administrator, Farmers Home Administration, Washington, DC

1979 Awardee

Clay Cochran Award
  • Clay Cochran, former Executive Director, Rural America, Washington, DC

Supportive Housing for the Elderly (Section 202)

HUD’s Supportive Housing for the Elderly program was authorized by Section 202 of the Housing Act of 1959, as amended by Section 801 of the National Affordable Housing Act of 1990 (NAHA). The program is often referred to as Section 202. Prior to the 1990 legislation, Section 202 funding was available to developers of housing for both elderly and disabled low-income households. Low-income disabled households are now served through the Supportive Housing for Persons with Disabilities (Section 811) program.

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Annual Report 2018

About HAC

What is HAC?

The Housing Assistance Council (HAC) has been helping local organizations build affordable homes in rural America since 1971. HAC assists in the development of both single- and multi-family homes and promotes homeownership for working low-income rural families through a self-help, “sweat equity” construction method by emphasizing local solutions, empowerment of people in poverty, reduced dependence, and self-help strategies. HAC offers services to public, nonprofit, and private organizations throughout the rural United States and maintains a special focus on high-need groups and regions, such as: Indian country, the Mississippi Delta, farmworkers, the Southwest border colonias, and Appalachia.

HAC is a nonprofit corporation located in Washington, DC with regional offices in the southeast, midwest, and southwest.

HAC’s Mission

The mission of the Housing Assistance Council is to improve housing conditions for the rural poor, with an emphasis on the poorest of the poor in the most rural places.

2018 Annual Report

Annual Report 2018HAC is pleased to present the 2018 Annual Report, which looks back at our accomplishments and those of our partner organizations over the last year.


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Read about HAC’s History

Volume 3 Number 2

Rural Voices: Housing and Economic Development

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.

Rural Voices Spring 1997 Issue - Cover

Rural Voices: Welfare Reform Impacts Rural Housing

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.

Volume 1 Number 3

Rural Voices: Robie’s House

In the title article, “Robie’s House,” the Spring 1996 issue of Rural Voices describes one approach to building homes affordably. In addition this issue celebrates the accomplishments of rural programs in both Texas and Vermont. We also highlight the efforts of our rural housing workshop partnet; the Rural Community Assistance Program (RCAP), to empower communities and improve infrasftructure. Finally, we have some words to say about the new rules goveming the Community Reinvestment Act and some of the changes affecting the Rural Housing Service’s Section 502 Homeownership program.

Volume 1 Number 2

Rural Voices: 25 Years: A Foundation for the Future

The cover story reviews HAC’s twenty-five year commitment to rural housing and how issues facing the development of affordable housing have been managed. We look at the accomplishments and improvements that have been made; however, we emphasize that all the good work and projects completed over the years have not gotten us to the final stages of solving affordable rural housing dilemmas. Nonetheless, the numerous people who have worked in this field have laid the foundation for a more productive future.

This issue also takes a good look at how some innovative people in Texas are trying to solve the problems that occur in colonias along the U.S/Mexican border; how Native American loan packagers help build links between Indian reservations and federal monies; and how rural housing development’s future is in line with the development of the information superhighway.