For more than four decades HAC has analyzed rural housing markets and disseminated information on housing conditions and characteristics for low-income rural Americans. To improve living conditions in rural areas, housing providers, policymakers and the public need access to reliable information and data. Through HAC’s newsletter, magazines, issue summaries, and library of more than 150 studies and reports on housing issues in rural America, HAC’s research and information constantly evolves to keep partners and policy makers informed.
HAC Research
The Housing Assistance Council has developed a library of full length research reports, research briefs, and information products covering a wide range of rural housing issues.
HAC’s full length research reports provide details information and analysis on a wide array of social, economic, and housing issues that impact affordable housing needs and provision in rural America.
Rural Research Briefs are a series of data and findings from the recently released decennial Census and American Community Survey (ACS), highlighting various social, economic, and housing characteristics of rural Americans.
Rural Research Notes present summary findings from HAC and other research and analyses on social, economic, and housing characteristics of rural Americans.
Rural Policy Notes present basic summaries and highlights of policy developments important to rural American’s and their housing.
Reports and summaries on public and private programs, and initiatives that help develop, rehabilitate or maintain affordable housing in rural communities including HUD and USDA housing resources.
HAC News
The HAC News newsletter provides a concise summary of national news on rural housing. This little yellow piece of paper, published every two weeks since April 1972, provides community based housing providers and the public with the information they need.
Rural Voices Magazine
HAC’s quarterly magazine, Rural Voices, is a national publication with information that local groups need. Each issue of Rural Voices focuses on a topic important to rural communities, with articles by local rural housing professionals from around the country. Over the past four years, Rural Voices have covered a variety of topics including the HOME program, rural CHDOs, rural public housing authorities, rural veterans housing, housing for rural seniors, USDA’s Section 502 and 523 programs, the Lower Mississippi Delta, the colonias, green building, nonprofit sustainability, fair housing, housing and hunger, and housing and water resources.
Rural Data Portal
Quality data for rural areas can be limited and hard to find. To address this concern, HAC developed the Rural Data Portal to help communities better understand and document needs and conditions. The Rural Data Portal is an online resource that provides social, economic, and housing characteristics of communities across the United States using data from HAC tabulations of the 2010 Census of Population and Housing, the American Community Survey (ACS), and Home Mortgage Disclosure Act Data.
Veterans Data Central
An extensive data utility that provides detailed information on the situation of veterans down to the level of every U.S. county. Included are demographic and economic indicators, housing characteristics, VA housing and mortgage finance information, and veteran homelessness. The site provides approximately 420 veteran-specific data indicators and over 650,000 data points dedicated solely to information on veterans.
Maps
USDA Housing Data
Since the 1950s, the United States Department of Agriculture has financed the construction, repair, and affordability of millions of homes for low- and moderate-income rural Americans. This activity is accomplished primarily through its Rural Development (RD) agency (formerly the Farmer’s Home Administration). The Housing Assistance Council (HAC) presents regular information and data on USDA’s rural housing loan and grant obligation activity.
