USDA ANNOUNCES AVAILABILITY OF $79 MILLION TO BUILD RURAL RENTAL HOUSING
WASHINGTON, Nov. 17, 1998 -- The U.S. Department of Agriculture will allocate $79 million during the 1999 fiscal year to help build affordable rental housing in rural areas, Jill Long Thompson, under secretary for rural development, announced today. The money, available as low interest loans from USDA, will be awarded based on a competitive application process. An additional $30 million in rental assistance will be available from USDA to make this housing affordable to low-income rural Americans.
"Through partnerships with other funding sources, the application process will help maximize the number of rental units that can be built with the available funds," Long Thompson said. "Loan requests will be selected based on a number of factors, including the extent to which a project leverages USDA loans with incentives from other private or public sources, the need for affordable housing in a proposed location, and the number and quality of units they will build per dollar loaned by USDA."
The level of demand for the loans under USDA's Section 515 Rural Rental Housing Program is expected to far exceed the available funds, Long Thompson said. In the past, USDA apportioned a set amount of program funds to each state. However, this year the entire pool of loans will be available on a competitive basis nationally without any set allocation for specific states.
Of the $79 million, $7.56 million will be reserved for use by eligible nonprofit entities, $4.2 million for under-served counties and colonias, and $7.25 million for rural Empowerment Zones and Enterprise Communities. Applications falling under these categories will be judged by the same criteria as the other applications.
Last year USDA financed the construction of 2,763 units of affordable rental housing and helped to repair 1,179 units of rental housing. Nationally, USDA has financed the construction of more than 450,000 units of rental housing for elderly and disabled individuals and families. More than 98 percent of these units are occupied by low- or very low-income residents.
Applications are available at all USDA Rural Development offices nationally. Program information is also available on the Internet at http://www.rurdev.usda.gov/rhs. Applications must be returned to USDA by Jan. 15, 1999. The new loan review procedures will enable USDA to fund the strongest applications and greatly reduce the amount of time between the receipt of an application and the awarding of loans, Long Thompson said.
In addition to building rural rental housing, USDA also helps to subsidize the rents paid by low-income people. Last year, USDA provided $541 million under its Rural Rental Assistance Program, which helped 245,000 residents of housing financed under the Section 515 program meet their rent payments.
Contact: Dan Campbell, (202) 720-6483
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