Every quarter, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) releases a listing (found here) of all rural development properties within our region. The construction of these properties is the result of USDA’s support and commitment to low-income rural housing.
The USDA has five direct mortgage programs. They include, Rural Rental Housing, Guaranteed Rental Housing, Housing Preservation Grants, Farm Labor Housing Loans and Grants, and Rental Assistance Programs. Each of these programs provides a source of funding to ensure that these projects are completed and can serves as a improvement to local housing availability.
- The Rental Assistance program is designed to close the gap between the rent that a tenant is required to pay and the amount that is thirty percent of adjusted income. For this program, a tenant that falls into the low-income to very low-income category is qualified for this particular program. If they are accepted, then the tenant pays their portion of rent, up to 30% of their monthly income and the remaining rent is subsidized by the USDA.
- The Housing Preservation Grants program provides grants to sponsoring organizations to repair or rehabilitate low income housing that is located in areas with a high concentration of need. The funds must also be used in a community with less than 20,000 individuals.
- The Farm Labor Housing loans and grants provides loans to farmers, associations or farmers, family-farm corporations, Native American Tribes, non-profits and public agencies. These loans are offered, often when applicants cannot get a line of credit elsewhere.
- The final program is the guaranteed rental housing program. The program aims to increase moderately-priced housing in rural areas by partnering with major lending institutions, finance agencies, and bond issuers to provide loans to housing projects. This is very similar to their Rural Rental Housing loans. Through that program USDA directly gives loans to individuals or groups looking to build apartments for very-low to moderate income families.
Lastly, all of this information including specific qualification and application instructions can be found online by clicking here.
