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HUD’s Commitment to Rural Housing Supply

November 22, 2022

 

Around one-in-five Americans reside in rural areas and small towns. Yet, compared to their urban counterparts, rural renters with low and very low incomes do not have sufficient access to housing assistance. The affordable housing shortage, rapid population growth, and overcrowding in rural areas make the problem worse. Consequently, most of our nation’s high-poverty counties are rural communities and, on a per capita basis, more people are experiencing homelessness in rural counties than in urban ones.

HUD is deeply committed to serving the unique housing and community development needs of rural communities. Although “Urban Development” is in our name, HUD serves all communities, including our nation’s rural communities, home to large populations of Native American, African American, Latino, and other historically disadvantaged communities.

HUD is part of the White House Interagency Rural Prosperity Policy Council, which established the Rural Partners Network (RPN), a whole of government approach to supporting rural America. Led by USDA, RPN is an alliance of federal agencies and commissions working directly with rural communities to expand rural prosperity through job creation, infrastructure development, and community improvement.

Furthermore, HUD has formed the Rural Prosperity Coordinating Council, a department-wide effort to support HUD’s rural activities. The Council will help transform the way that HUD responds to the unique housing and service needs and unlocks opportunities for housing and community development in small towns and rural communities.

Some recent examples of HUD’s commitment to serving rural communities include:

  • As a recent Our Way Home blog reiterates, strengthening rental assistance is essential for an inclusive housing market. HUD provides rental assistance to approximately 1.2 million people living in rural areas, including approximately 250,000 older adults and approximately 450,000 children.
  • HUD released a first-of-its-kind package of resources to address unsheltered homelessness and homeless encampments, with $54.5 million specifically set aside to address homelessness in rural communities.

HUD’s Role in Rural Housing Supply

Building new housing supply in rural communities is a formidable challenge. Often, small towns lack capacity to complete long-term housing development plans. Additionally, while construction material costs may be consistent across communities, construction-related transportation and labor costs are often higher in rural areas. Therefore, rent and home prices are not high enough to cover construction and operation costs, making it is difficult for developers to plan cost-effective projects in rural America. This challenge is compounded by the smaller size of rural housing projects to match the scale of small communities, making them even harder to finance.

HUD works closely in partnership with U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Rural Housing Services (RHS) and other agencies to serve the unique housing needs of rural communities. HUD programs support the preservation and development of affordable housing in rural communities. Key programs include:

HUD also provides support for rural homeowners and households with low-incomes who dream of homeownership. Some of these programs include:

Importantly, HUD also provides technical assistance and capacity building for rural communities through the following programs:

  • Capacity Building for Affordable Housing and Community Development Program enhances local community capacity to carry out development and affordable housing activities, including a special set aside for rural capacity building activities that benefit individuals and families with low and moderate incomes in rural areas.
  • Rural Capacity Building Program provides dedicated funding and resources for community building and affordable housing activities in rural areas.
  • Rural Gateway clearinghouse provides technical assistance, training workshops, and peer learning and resource sharing to support rural housing and economic development along with case studies of rural housing developments.

Through all this work, HUD is focused on ensuring that our country’s continued economic recovery includes rural and tribal communities and that these communities receive equitable access to opportunity and development. HUD's mission is to create strong, sustainable, inclusive communities and quality affordable homes for all, and it is up to all of us to ensure this includes all rural Americans.

 

Robin Keegan, Margaret Salazar, and James Crawford contributed to this blog post.