Groceries, childcare, education, transportation, insurance, utilities: these are just some of the essential places families nationwide spend their paychecks every month. Making ends meet takes hard work, but sometimes even after working long hours and shopping right families need help to make it.
Twenty years ago essential affordable housing opportunities were scarce in rural America. Banks weren’t investing in these opportunities because deals that would build affordable rentals required long-term, patient capital that turned profit much slower than those big, new, luxury apartments in cities and larger towns.
Congress recognized this shortage twenty years ago, and determined banks needed to be incentivized to invest in affordable housing in rural America. Congress also recognized the incentives needed to be managed and overseen by a Department that knew and safeguarded rural America’s needs. In 1996, the Guaranteed Rural Rental Housing Program was born at USDA.
For 20 years USDA has acted as the guarantor of more than $1 billion in private investments that create and preserve affordable rural rental housing. We’ve done more than guaranteed loans - we’ve worked with the private sector to create more than 41,700 affordable apartments in rural America since 1996.
That’s more than 41,700 affordable homes to do homework, to make dinner, to spend time with family, and to relax after a long day at work. These investments have created 41,700 reasons to be proud of the work USDA does in rural America.
Families, senior citizens, people with disabilities, and all other hardworking Americans deserve to have access to affordable housing opportunities. USDA’s Guaranteed Rural Rental Housing Program works with private lenders, both national and local, to help them provide affordable housing opportunities to their communities. These are investments that matter, and USDA is proud to support them.
If you or a loved one is in need of an affordable rural housing opportunity reach out to your local USDA Rural Development office today and request a list of USDA rental properties in your area.
