Taking Stock of Rural America

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5 DECADES OF TAKING STOCK IN RURAL AMERICA

RURAL PEOPLE, RURAL PLACES, RURAL HOUSING

First published in 1984, Taking Stock is a decennial research publication of the Housing Assistance Council. The 2023 edition of Taking Stock continues this legacy of presenting social, economic, and housing trends for rural places and rural people.


Visit TakingStockRural.org


In the early 1980s, the Housing Assistance Council (HAC) published its initial Taking Stock report. This seminal work was one of the first comprehensive assessments of rural housing and rural poverty conditions in the United States. The first Taking Stock also exposed the plight and housing need of the nation’s high poverty rural areas. HAC’s decennial Taking Stock analysis continued in 1990, 2000, and 2010 and has increasingly expanded to cover a broader scope of social, economic, and housing trends in rural areas. The 2023 edition of Taking Stock continues its legacy of presenting a composite picture of trends and issues important to rural people, places, and housing.

Policy News town

HAC’s Comments on HUD’s 2023 Learning Agenda

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HAC submitted comments to the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) Request for Information on their Fiscal Year 2023 Learning Agenda. There is a lack of rural research on a variety of housing topics, and HUD can play a role in investing in high-quality research and data to better define rural needs.

HAC’s comments suggested these areas and topics as ripe for HUD research investment:

  • Farmworker housing conditions
  • Manufactured housing issues
  • The fate of housing units leaving the federally subsidized housing stock
  • The impact of rural Area Median Incomes on HUD program access
  • Rural data in the American Housing Survey

Read HAC’s full comments here.

HUD Learning Agenda 2023 Comment Letter
HAC in the News

How HAC Fills the Data Gap in Rural America

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Filling The Data Gap In Rural America on forbes.com highlights how HAC works to increase access to data about rural America to better address rural housing challenges and persistent poverty.

Over the years, there has been an increase in accurate data collection regarding rural America, and HAC has been at the forefront.

Fiscal Year 2021 USDA Rural Development Housing Activity Report - Cover

Fiscal Year 2021 USDA Rural Development Housing Activity Report

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Since the 1950s, USDA has provided financial assistance for the construction, repair, and affordability of millions of homes for low- and moderate-income rural Americans. USDA accomplishes this activity through its Rural Development (RD) agency. In FY 2021, USDA obligated 139,221 loans, loan guarantees, and grants totaling about $24.2 billion. Since the first USDA housing loan was made (around 1950), the agency has funded the construction, purchase, or repair of over 5.5 million rural housing units representing $384.1 billion.

Beginning in 1978, USDA also provided funding for rental assistance to help tenants better afford to rent housing in agency-financed multi-family housing units. In FY 2021, USDA obligated 291,455 annual units of tenant assistance representing about $1.54 billion through the combined total of the Section 521 Rental Assistance and the Section 542 Rural Housing Voucher programs. Since the late 1970s, USDA has funded over $28.8 billion for rental assistance and tenant vouchers representing nearly 4.4 million annual units.

Download the document.

USDA Housing Activity Report - Fiscal Year 2021
Veterans Data Central
Housing Assistance Council

Learn More About Veterans in Your Community

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Veterans Data Central is a simple, easy to use, on-line resource that provides essential information on the social, economic, and housing characteristics of veterans in the United States. The data and information available on Veterans Data Central can help support sound strategies and policies to help veterans. Now with newly updated data from the Census Bureau and other sources!

Visit Veterans Data Central
Policy News from the Administration

HAC Urges Census Bureau to Expand Data Offerings

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The Housing Assistance Council (HAC) has submitted comments to the U.S. Census Bureau on its new 2020 Census Data Product Planning Crosswalk. 

HAC urges the U.S. Census Bureau to provide sub-county geographies in all elements of the new Data Product Planning Crosswalk, as well as all public-use data products it produces. Political and economic geography is an important consideration when determining the population and residential patterns of an area. The county is a commonly used unit of geography. In many rural areas, the county is often identified within political, social, and economic contexts.  However, county-based designations are not the optimum criteria on which to assess or research social, economic and housing conditions.

The Housing Assistance Council is pleased to have this opportunity to provide comments to the U.S. Census Bureau on its new 2020 Census Data Product Planning Crosswalk. HAC looks forward to working with the Census Bureau to continually improve the provision of data for all communities – urban, suburban, and rural.

Read HAC’s Comments.

HAC in the News

Successful Farming – Rural America, Mostly White, is Becoming More Diverse

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Successful Farming highlighted research from HAC and the Brookings Institute focused on diversity in rural America.

Three-quarters of rural Americans are white, a larger proportion than the roughly six in 10 for the nation overall, but the rural population is becoming more diverse, said a pair of analyses of Census data. The rural America of the future will be increasingly diverse and not as politically conservative as many assume, said the Brookings Institution…

“The overall rural population between 2010 and 2020 would have declined substantially if not for growth in its Hispanic population,” three researchers from the Housing Assistance Council said in the Daily Yonder. Hispanics make up 10.4% of the rural population and Blacks make up 7.4%. People of two or more races make up 4% of the rural population, and Native Americans are 2%, twice the national rate.

The Housing Assistance Council researchers said, “Despite advances made through the civil rights movement, labor struggles, and increased self-determination, the experiences and conditions of non-white rural residents and communities are often overlooked given their relatively small populations.”

Read the Complete Article
Race and Ethnicity in Rural America - Rural Research Brief
Housing Assistance Council

The United States is Becoming More Racially Diverse – And So is Rural America

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Race and ethnicity are central and often complex components of our national identity, history, and struggles. Racial dynamics also manifest themselves in our geographies and communities. Rural communities across the United States are comprised of many races, ethnicities, and cultural histories that have been essential to the story of the nation. Contrary to the long-standing narrative of racial and ethnic homogeny across rural America, many racial and ethnic groups are represented in rural communities.

Using the Census Bureau’s recently released P.L. 94-171 Redistricting data, the Housing Assistance Council (HAC) presents an initial review of characteristics, trends, and issues related to race and ethnicity in rural America.

Rural America Now Has More Than 5 Million Reported Cases and Over 100,000 Deaths from Covid-19

Rural America Now Has More Than 5 Million Reported Cases and Over 100,000 Deaths from Covid-19

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COVID-19 in Rural America – September 1, 2021

As of August 31, there have been more than 5.6 million reported cases of COVID-19, and approximately 101,741 associated deaths in communities outside metropolitan areas. Between August 1 and August 31, communities outside of metropolitan areas reported nearly 700,000 new cases of COVID-19 – a 291 percent increase over the previous 30-day period. There were 5,122 reported deaths associated with COVID-19 in rural communities in August, which represented a 254 percent increase in deaths from July 2021. Communities outside of metropolitan areas accounted for over 19 percent of all COVID deaths and 16 percent of new cases in August. The dramatic increase in rural cases and deaths mimics national trends related to the ascendancy of the more contagious delta variant.

POPULATION GROWTH IN RURAL AMERICA WAS SMALL - AND UNEVEN - BETWEEN 2010 AND 2020
Housing Assistance Council

Population Growth in Rural America was Small – and Uneven – Between 2010 and 2020

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A Census in Rural America 2020 Update

Using Census 2010 and 2020 data, combined with methodology from the Housing Assistance Council’s Rural and Small-Town definition of location, HAC estimates that the rural population only increased by approximately 164,000 residents over the last decade. This population growth accounted for a .3 percent increase in the rural and small-town population. Overall, HAC estimates that approximately 60,551,165 people live in rural communities using the latest Census data.

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50 Years for Rural America

Over 50 years HAC has worked in every U.S. state and the territories. Learn more about what our work means for rural communities.

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(202) 842-8600  |  (202) 347-3441  |  hac@ruralhome.org

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