USDA Rural Housing Programs: An Overview Page: 2 of 18
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USDA Rural Housing Programs: An Overview
Summary
Title V of the Housing Act of 1949 authorized the Department of Agriculture
(USDA) to make loans to farmers to enable them to construct, improve, repair, or
replace dwellings and other farm buildings to provide decent, safe, and sanitary living
conditions for themselves or their tenants, lessees, sharecroppers, and laborers.
USDA was also authorized to make grants or combinations of loans and grants to
those farmers who could not qualify to repay the full amount of a loan, but who
needed the funds to make the dwellings sanitary or to remove health hazards to the
occupants or the community.
While the act was initially targeted toward farmers, over time the act has been
amended to enable USDA to make housing loans and grants to rural residents in
general. Currently, the USDA housing programs are administered by the Rural
Housing Service (RHS). The housing programs are generally referred to by the
section number under which they are authorized in the Housing Act of 1949, as
amended.
The rural housing programs include loans for the purchase, repair, or
construction of single-family housing; loans and grants to remove health and safety
hazards in owner-occupied homes; loans and grants for the construction and purchase
of rental housing for farmworkers; loans for the purchase and construction of rental
and cooperative housing for the elderly and for rural residents in general; rental
assistance payments to make rental housing more affordable; interest subsidies to
make homeownership loans more affordable and to enable production of rental
housing that is affordable for the target population; and loans for developing building
sites upon which rural housing is to be constructed.This report will be updated as deemed necessary.
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Foote, Bruce E. USDA Rural Housing Programs: An Overview, report, July 27, 2007; Washington D.C.. (https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc820833/m1/2/: accessed April 19, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, UNT Digital Library, https://digital.library.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Government Documents Department.