Media Contact: Susan McAvoy (202) 720-4623
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Public Contact: Jim Brownlee (202) 720-2091
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USDA PROVIDES $250 MILLION FOR RURAL HOUSING
Direct Loan Program Marks 50 Years of Housing Assistance for Rural Americans
WASHINGTON, December 10, 1999 -- Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman today announced that USDA will provide $194.5 million in housing assistance for rural Americans, and an additional $60 million to leverage private funding through partnerships with local institutions to provide the dream of homeownership to American families.
"USDA's 50-year effort to promote homeownership has had a profound impact on rural living conditions for millions of Americans," Glickman said. "Rural homeownership is at an all-time high. And these new funds will help ensure that even more rural Americans will have modern, efficient housing to call home."
In Rutledge, Georgia, site of the first home built under USDA's homeownership program, Mrs. Sara Herndon, the widow of the original borrower, handed keys to a new home to Nancy Bailey, of Monroe, Ga., who closed on a USDA home loan this year. At the ceremony, USDA Under Secretary Jill Long Thompson, with other state, federal, nonprofit and private sector officials, were on hand to recognize rural homeownership successes over the past 50 years and to applaud the expansion of the Rural Home Loan Partnership.
Today's announcement coincides with the release of a report by USDA's Economic Research Service (ERS), which indicates that USDA's Single Family Housing program reaches more rural people in need than almost any other housing program.
Long Thompson said the ERS report showed that more than 90 percent of borrowers said they would have been unable to afford a comparable home for at least 2 years, if ever, without assistance from the program.
"The survey found that the program serves mostly young and minority borrowers, whose income averaged $18,200 and that more than two-thirds of all recent borrowers were highly satisfied with the process of buying and financing their homes through USDA's Rural Housing Service," Long Thompson said. "That's an outstanding record of achievement and a benchmark as we embark to serve rural American's housing needs for the next 50 years."
USDA Rural Development offers a number of direct housing loan programs and loan guarantee programs, which it delivers with nonprofit and private sector partners. A complete list of Rural Home Loan Partners nationwide is available here http://www.rurdev.usda.gov/rd/newsroom/1999/cdcs.htm or call the RHS at (202) 690-1533.
Note to Editors: For more information on the ERS report, Meeting the Housing Needs of Rural Residents: Results of the 1998 Survey of USDA's Single Family Direct Loan Housing Program, (RDRR-91) contact Linda Ghelfi at (202) 694-5437 or lghelfi@econ.ag.gov. To obtain a copy of the report by mail, call: 1-202-694-5139 (News Media); 1-800-999-6779 (Non-News Media). The publication is available electronically at http://www.econ.ag.gov/epubs/pdf/rdrr91.
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