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The Rural Development mission area, was established on October 13, 1994, by the Federal Crop Insurance Reform and Department of Agriculture Reorganization Act. Rural Development is one of seven mission areas within the Department. It consists of three agencies, the Rural Business-Cooperative Service, the Rural Housing Service, and the Rural Utilities Service. The mission area also administers the rural portion of the Administration's Empowerment Zones and Enterprise Communities (EZ/EC) Initiative and the National Rural Development Partnership, a nationwide network of rural development leaders and officials committed to the vitality of rural areas. The mission area’s programs are authorized by a variety of statutes which are identified with the discussion of each goal.
The mission of Rural Development is to: Enhance the ability of rural communities to develop, to grow, and to improve their quality of life by targeting financial and technical resources in areas of greatest need through activities of greatest potential.
Rural Development achieves its mission by helping rural individuals, communities and businesses obtain the financial and technical assistance needed to address their diverse and unique needs. This financial and technical assistance may come directly from Rural Development or, with Rural Development's assistance, from one of the numerous public and private organizations involved in the development of rural communities. Rural Development agencies deliver over 40 different loan, loan guarantee, and grant programs in the areas of business development, cooperative development, housing, community facilities, water supply, waste disposal, electric power, and telecommunications, including distance learning and telemedicine. Rural Development staff also provide technical assistance to rural families and community leaders to ensure success of the projects it finances. Rural Development staff are also responsible for the servicing and collection of a loan portfolio that exceeds $80 billion. Additional information regarding Rural Development can be found in its strategic plan.
This Plan is a combined Plan for all of the agencies in the mission area. In the past separate plans were published for each agency. Several performance indicators utilized in the FY 1999 and FY 2000 Annual Performance Plans have been discontinued. These measures can be found on Appendix A of the FY 1999 Annual Performance Report. Also, several performance indicators have been added to this Plan. These include: 1) an indicator related to first-year delinquencies for the single family housing program; 2) a delinquency indicator for the multi-family housing program; 3) an indicator for the establishment of partnerships related to community development technical assistance; and 4) an indicator related to the development of new work schedules and leave policies.
Baseline Indications of Need: Indications of the extensive nature of rural America's needs are provided by selected baseline data below. Rural Development programs will contribute to the amelioration of these conditions but, without huge increases in funding, cannot markedly impact the macro indicators of disparity.
From the American Housing Survey (1995 data):
3% of all rental units exhibit crowding (more than one person per room).
million families live in substandard housing.
60 percent of poor rural households, who pay more than 30 percent of their income towards housing and utilities, pay less than $500 each month for housing costs.
538,000 households reported moderate to severe physical housing problems.
The median household income for rural renters was $17,254, as compared to $22,051 for urban renters.
23% of rural renters pay over 40% of income to housing costs.
In 570,000 occupied rural housing units the primary source of drinking water was "not safe to drink."