Nonprofit warns of rural affordable housing crisis - Entrepreneur Generations

During its biannual conference last week, nonprofit organization the Housing Assistance Council warned that rural America will be hit with an affordable-housing crisis in the coming years, one that will be exacerbated if the U.S. Department of Agriculture doesn't take action.

Hundreds of thousands of rental units could age out of the USDA's Section 515 Rural Rental Housing program in the coming years unless the department pays to repair and update those properties. There are about 415,000 rental units available through the program today; "the program started in 1963 and has financed more than 533,000 apartment units in nearly 28,000 different developments," Jan Pytalski reports for The Daily Yonder. "The program supports mortgages for the builders of rental housing for very-low-, low-, and moderate-income families, elderly persons, and persons with disabilities. Those groups face the gravest danger. Once the properties that hold their units exit the program after being paid off by the owner, the individuals might find themselves unable to participate in the unsubsidized rental market."

Affordable housing can be scarce in rural areas, and 515 is one of the few affordable housing programs focused on rural communities. If the USDA doesn't invest in the program, rural residents could lose some of the few available units in their communities and be forced to move to another town or city, said Stephen Sugg, HAC's government relations manager.

from The Rural Blog https://ift.tt/2UUpy3n Nonprofit warns of rural affordable housing crisis - Entrepreneur Generations

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