The Center for Rural Multifamily Housing Preservation has been launched to preserve rural rental housing, particularly properties financed through the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA’s) Section 515 program.
An initiative of the Housing Assistance Council (HAC), the center will provide technical assistance and expertise to preserve the long-term affordability of this critical housing stock.
“The time to act is now,” says HAC CEO David Lipsetz. “The cost of housing is at a historic high across the United States. Workers, seniors, young people, and families are all feeling the pinch. As the nation’s rural housing intermediary, HAC must do its part to help small towns keep great quality housing and build to meet the demands of the modern economy. The center will do just that.”
Rental homes financed by USDA are an important source of affordable rental housing that can be found in 87% of all U.S. counties. The Section 515 program alone produced 550,000 affordable apartments in rural communities, but it 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 agency’s 2023 Multifamily Housing Occupancy Report.
In many rural communities, these apartments are the only affordable rental housing available. Two-thirds of the families and individuals in Section 515 properties are seniors or individuals with disabilities, with the average income of tenants about $16,000, stresses HAC.
HAC’s Kristin Blum has been named to lead the new center.
“The center will bring together HAC’s unique combination of resources—lending, research, policy, and direct technical assistance—to both preserve individual properties and redefine the preservation process,” says Blum.
Through the fiscal 2024 appropriations bill, Congress has granted USDA the authority to pilot a new proposal to decouple Section 515 mortgages and Section 521 rental assistance, an opportunity that will require substantial stakeholder engagement and capacity-building to be successful, according to HAC.
“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,” Lipsetz says.
“I can think of nobody better than Kristin to lead this critical initiative,” continues Lipsetz, “She has done remarkable work as a senior member of HAC’s lending team and brings a wealth of prior experience building the capacity of the nonprofit housing sector.”
HAC is a national nonprofit that supports affordable housing efforts throughout rural America. Since 1971, it has provided below-market financing for affordable housing and community development, technical assistance and training, research and information, and policy formulation to enable solutions for rural communities.
