HAC Blog Posts
In addition to being a regular contributor to both Rooflines, a blog covering affordable housing and community development around the country, and The Daily Yonder, a blog focused on rural issues, HAC occasionally publishes blog posts to this website.
Comments on individual posts can be entered on the host sites or through HAC's comment section; general comments or suggestions can be sent to
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at HAC.
 "True" Homeownership in Rural America
The United States is largely a nation of homeowners.
Owning a home has traditionally been a foundation of the “American Dream,” conveying prosperity, financial security, and upward mobility — or so it was thought until 2008. Today, the housing crisis and flagging economy have taken some of the luster from homeownership, and has called into question elements of our nation’s housing systems and policies.
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By Leslie Strauss
July 17, 2012
Rural housing professionals complain about USDA’s Rural Development/Rural Housing Service all the time. We also tout the advantages of using HUD programs, such as HOME, in rural areas. But we hate the idea of moving USDA’s housing programs to HUD. That is not the cure for rural housing’s problems.
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By Janice Clark
June 21, 2012
"How many people in the room consider their home a safe and affordable place to live?" I asked, and not one person raised a hand.
I was at the B. S. Ricks Memorial Library, in Yazoo City, Miss., conducting a focus group meeting with senior residents. Yazoo City (population 11,403) is strikingly rural, with dirt roads and a small commercial area. Working with Linda Smith, executive director of theEsther Stewart Buford (ESB) Foundation, we arranged to meet with 15 area seniors in December 2011. Among the seniors were two local aldermen and the former city mayor. The conversation focused on the condition of their homes and the services they would like to see in their community.
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By Leslie Strauss
June 8, 2012
This part is simple: a property must be in a rural place to be eligible for USDA rural housing funding. Beyond that simple statement, things get complicated. What places are rural, and why does it matter?
Congress used three characteristics to define rural for USDA’s housing programs: population size, rural character, and a serious shortage of mortgage credit. In various circumstances, the maximum population size can be 10,000 or 20,000 or 25,000. As a practical matter, it’s far easier to enter a property address at USDA’s property eligibility Web site than to try to figure out whether it fits the definition. And note that everything in this paragraph applies only to USDA’s housing programs; the rural eligibility definitions for community facilities, utilities, and business programs are different.
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By Leslie Strauss
May 22, 2012
Affordable housing advocates were happy recently to see the Senate Appropriations Committee tell the U.S. Department of Agriculture to get its act together on rental housing. USDA’s FY12 budget proposed to eliminate funding for the department’s flagship Section 515 rental housing loan program and focus its efforts on the Multi-Family Housing Revitalization Program known as MPR. Then the FY13 budget took the opposite approach, proposing to focus on Section 515 and eliminate funding for MPR. In S.Rpt. 112-163 the frustrated Senate committee "directs the Secretary, conclusively, to determine and articulate an effective long-term strategy to address rural rental housing needs."
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