Sens. Catherine Cortez Masto, Tina Smith, and Mike Rounds have introduced bipartisan legislation to improve federal rural housing programs and strengthen the supply of affordable housing in rural America, the Rural Housing Service Reform Act. The Act expands housing opportunities by offering loans, grants, and rental assistance to rural communities across the country.
“Working families in the Silver State should have access to secure, affordable housing no matter where they live,” said Sen. Cortez Masto. “This bipartisan legislation would provide vital resources to improve access to affordable housing in our rural communities, from Elko to Ely.”
Rural parts of the U.S. saw only a 1.7% increase in the number of housing units between 2010 and 2020, with almost half of states seeing a decrease in the number of rural units. At the same time, homelessness in rural counties is currently increasing.
The Rural Housing Service Reform Act would improve and build upon several U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) rural housing programs. Specifically, the Act would:
- Fix a longstanding problem for properties, known as Sec. 515 properties, that were financed by the USDA decades ago and now have maturing mortgages, by making it easier for non-profits to acquire those properties and by decoupling rental assistance so that assistance does not disappear when those mortgages mature.
- Make permanent a USDA pilot program to make mortgage loans available in Native communities by partnering with local Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFI), lenders designed to provide financing and support to underserved communities.
- Bring the USDA’s outdated way of measuring incomes in line with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s practices.
- Modernize the USDA’s foreclosure process to cut red tape, better protect homeowners, and ensure USDA-owned properties remain affordable.
- Update the rules for the home repair loan program to make it less burdensome to get smaller loans.
- Require the USDA to speed up their loan approval process.
- Improve IT so that the USDA can process loans more quickly and with less staff time wasted on paperwork or manual data entry.
The Rural Housing Service Reform Act has been endorsed by the National Rural Housing Coalition, Local Initiatives Support Corporation, Housing Assistance Council, Enterprise Community Partners, Mortgage Bankers Association, Council of State Community Development Agencies, Habitat for Humanity International, National Housing Law Project, AARP, Council for Affordable and Rural Housing, Bipartisan Policy Center Action, and the National Association of Counties.
“The Rural Housing Service Reform Act is a testament to commonsense, bipartisan collaboration in Congress,” said David Lipsetz, President and CEO of the Housing Assistance Council. “This important legislation would modernize USDA’s flagship single-family housing programs, provide new tools to help preserve their critical stock of rural multifamily properties, ensure that USA single-family loans are reaching Indian Country, and allow for sorely needed technology and staffing modernization at USDA. We are so appreciative for the leadership pf Sens. Smith and Rounds on these issues and we applaud the deep commitment that all of the bill’s co-sponsors have shown to preserving and improving rural housing programs at USDA.”
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