The head of a new Center at the Housing Assistance Council (HAC) focused on rural renting housing said a U.S. Department of Agriculture-funded program supporting low-income tenants is at-risk of losing housing units if more is not done to preserve them.
Kristin Blum was recently named to HAC’s new Center for Rural Multifamily Housing Preservation. The Center will provide technical assistance and expertise to preserve the long-term affordability of rural rental housing, particularly properties financed through the USDA’s Section 515 program.
“The challenge we have with the [Section] 515 units is they’re aging properties,” Blum told the Daily Yonder. “They’re 20-30 or more years old. They need rehab. And it’s not easy in rural communities to access the funding that’s needed to rehab those units. And so if a nonprofit wants to buy them, it has to navigate a complicated bureaucracy at USDA and then also secure resources to do that rehab.”
Many rural places lack resources for new affordable housing, she said.
“So we feel that preservation of these existing units is vital to meeting the affordable housing needs of communities, because there’s not going to be new units. It’s more cost effective to rehab a building that needs some repairs…[for] it to be a quality, healthy place for people to live,” Blum said. “And so that’s why we’ve decided to focus on preservation. Obviously, we care about production of new affordable housing in rural communities, too. But we think that preserving these existing units is vital.”
Rental homes financed by USDA are a critical source of affordable rental housing that can be found in 87% of all U.S. counties, according to HAC. The Department’s Section 515 program produced 550,000 affordable apartments in rural communities.
However, the program has not produced new units in over a decade and has lost more than 150,000 of its original units to reach its current size of less than 390,000 units, according to the recent FY2023 Multifamily Housing Occupancy Report.
Blum said that although the program has flaws, it has worked.
“I think it’s served its purpose, but its purpose hasn’t ended. So we need to continue to do this work,” she said. “They need these properties to be preserved.”
In many rural communities, these apartments are the only affordable rental housing units available. Seniors or individuals with disabilities make up two-thirds of people and families in Section 515 properties, according to HAC. Blum said the average income of tenants is less than $16,000.
“These apartments are home to families, seniors, and individuals with disabilities who could otherwise face homelessness,” said HAC CEO David Lipsetz in a press statement. “It’s time for the country – including the federal government and philanthropy – to invest some real muscle in preserving these vital homes before they are lost forever.”
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