¹All data presented in this study are from the 1995 AHS, unless otherwise noted.

²J.L. Bokemeier and L.E. Garkovich, “Meeting Rural Family Needs,” in C.B. Flora and J.A. Christenson (eds.), Rural Policies for the 1990's, Boulder, Colo., 1991.

³Roundtable participant comments, and consequently, the data analysis for this report focused specifically on the Section 515, Section 521, Section 538, and Section 8 programs. Low Income Housing Tax Credits were also discussed. This report does not reflect any analysis of other federal programs, including HOME or any specific state-based rental housing programs.

⁴1995 AHS data are used in this study because of problems with 1997 data that were not resolved in time for this publication.

⁵See Appendix B for the roundtable discussion topics.

⁶For a more detailed discussion of these definitions see Appendix A.

⁷The quotes provided throughout this report are taken from HAC’s roundtable summaries. Although the quotes are not attributed to specific panelists, these comments were recorded with the permission of the participants.

⁸Housing Assistance Council, The Poorest of the Poor: Female-Headed Households in Nonmetro America, HAC: Washington, D.C., 1995. The disproportionate number of rural elderly households experiencing worst case needs may somewhat influence this gender disparity, as many elderly women are widowed or single. On the other end of the spectrum, a significant proportion (45 percent) of worst case needs female-headed households are younger households with children.

⁹Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University, The State of the Nation’s Housing 1999, Joint Center: Cambridge, Mass., 1999.

¹⁰A housing unit is crowded when there is more than one person per room.

¹¹ Cost burden refers to those households paying more than 30 percent of their income for housing costs. See Appendix A for a complete discussion of cost burden.

¹²Housing costs include mortgage payments, taxes, rent, and utilities. Housing cost figures are used to calculate housing cost burden and determine worst case needs.

¹³It is possible that rural worst case renters may live in higher cost areas and therefore pay more for rent and other housing costs. HAC has not analyzed geographic data regarding these higher housing costs, and thus cannot empirically explain this trend.

¹⁴The poverty line refers to the minimum income needed by a family or individual to meet basic needs of food, shelter, clothing, and other essential items as determined by the federal government. In 1996, the Census Bureau determined the poverty line to be $15,911 for a family of two adults and two children, $10,815 for a family of one adult and one child, and $8,613 for a single adult.

¹⁵See Appendix A for a complete discussion of substandard housing.

¹⁶The researchers acknowledge that there are many state-run rental assistance programs. However, the roundtable discussions focused on the use of RA and Section 8 in rural areas.

¹⁷ James Mikesell, “Federal Housing Assistance Promotes Homeownership,” in Rural Conditions and Trends, Vol. 9, No. 1, 1998.

¹⁸The five-year agreement may be renewed as many times as funds are available.

¹⁹USDA News Release No. 0434.98, July 31, 1998.

²⁰For a more detailed discussion of the connection between housing and welfare reform, see Housing Assistance Council, Rural Housing and Welfare Reform: HAC’s 1997 Report on the State of the Nation’s Rural Housing, HAC: Washington, D.C., 1997.

²¹For a more detailed discussion see Christopher Holden and Art Collings, “Section 515 Cuts and a Looming Rental Assistance Crisis: Fewer Options for the Poorest of the Rural Poor,” Rural Voices, Winter 1997- 98, Vol. 3, No. 2.

²²This table, which was constructed by the National Rural Housing Foundation using RHS data, reflects the projected long term use of RA funds. The total units assisted are the units that will need to be renewed and the projected number of new construction units the program would be able to support, given the estimated allocation. These numbers reflect RHS estimates from the mid-1990s and no longer reflect current estimated allocation numbers, given recent cuts to the program.

²³Fair Market Rent is a gross rent estimate determined by HUD to assure that a sufficient supply of rental housing is available to program participants. This figure, which is calculated for all counties, includes rent and the cost of utilities, except telephone. For a more detailed discussion of how FMR is calculated or to view FMR for each county see Department of Housing and Urban Development, “Fair Market Rents for the Section 8 Housing Assistance Payments Program – Fiscal Year 1999,” 63 Fed. Reg. 52858 (October 1, 1998) or http://www.huduser/datasets/fmr.html.

²⁴U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Waiting in Vain: An Update on America’s Rental Housing Crisis, HUD: Washington, D.C., 1999. This report is an examination of waiting lists of large, urban housing authorities.

²⁵The voucher subsidy is the difference between 30 percent of the resident’s income and payment standard determined by HUD.

²⁶The researchers acknowledge that there are many state-run rental housing development financing programs. However, Sections 515, 538, and Low Income Housing Tax Credits were the focus of these roundtable discussions.

²⁷USDA News Release No. 0434.98, July 31, 1998.

²⁸National Rural Housing Foundation, Delivery Systems for Affordable Rural Housing Finance, NRHF: Washington, D.C., 1995. Now that Section 515 applications must compete in the NOFA process, there is no longer this backlog of demand in applications.

²⁹USDA News Release, October 20, 1998.

³⁰National Rural Housing Foundation, Creative Financing for Rural Multifamily Housing, NRHF: Wasington, D.C., April 1998.

³¹Owners can choose to set aside either 20 percent of the units for households at or below 50 percent of the area median income or 40 percent for households with incomes below 60 percent of the area median income. The income ceiling refers to the fact that rents in qualifying units are limited to 30 percent of the elected 50 or 60 percent of the area media income.

³²Jeremy Citro, Low-Income Housing Tax Credits: Helping Meet the Demand for Affordable Rental Housing, AARP: Washington, D.C., January 1999.

³³U.S. General Accounting Office, Tax Credits: Opportunities to Improve Oversight of the Low-Income Housing Program, Washington, D.C., March 1997.

³⁴Citro, 1999.

³⁵U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Development and Analysis of the National Low- Income Housing Tax Credit Database, Washington, D.C., July 1996.

³⁶U.S. General Accounting Office, Tax Credits: Opportunities to Improve Oversight of the Low-Income Housing Program, Report 97-55, Washington, D.C., March 1997. HAC will be conducting research on the use and preservation of LIHTC projects in rural areas in FY 2000.

³⁷The loss of 631 projects is less than 4 percent of the total Section 515 portfolio and 1.3 percent of the total Section 515 units. However, given the existing need for affordable rental units in rural America, the loss of 5,694 affordable rental units is significant. Data made available by the RHS National Office Multi-Family Housing Prepayment Application Records, November 1998.

³⁸Panelists were referring to units that are in jeopardy of being lost, not projects.

³⁹In commenting on a draft of this report, RHS staff indicated that the agency already provides this service. RHS will score funds that have been requested but not committed provided the requested funds will be awarded in time to process the application that same fiscal year.

⁴⁰HS staff comments on a draft of this report indicate that exceptions to this regulation are often made.

⁴¹U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census, and U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, American Housing Survey for the United States in 1995, Current Housing Reports H150/95RV, U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C., July 1997.

⁴²American Housing Survey in 1995, A-13 to A-14.

⁴³ U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Rental Housing Assistance – The Crisis Continues: The Worst Case Housing Needs Report for 1997, Washington, D.C., April 1998.

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