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106TH CONGRESS

2D SESSION S. 3228

To promote the development of affordable, quality rental housing in rural

areas for low-income households.

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

OCTOBER 24 (legislative day, SEPTEMBER 22), 2000

Mr. EDWARDS (for himself, Mr. JEFFORDS, and Mr. LEAHY) introduced the

following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on

Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs

A BILL

To promote the development of affordable, quality rental

housing in rural areas for low-income households.

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Rural Rental Housing

5 Act of 2000’’.

6 SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

7 Congress makes the following findings:

8 (1) There is a pressing and increasing need for

9 rental housing for rural families and senior citizens:
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1 (A) Two thirds of extremely low-income

2 and very low-income rural households do not

3 have access to affordable rental housing units.

4 (B) More than 900,000 rural rental house5 holds (10.4 percent) live in either severely or

6 moderately inadequate housing.

7 (C) Substandard housing is a problem for

8 547,000 rural renters, and approximately

9 165,000 rural rental units are overcrowded.

10 (2) Many rural United States households live

11 with serious housing problems, including a lack of

12 basic water and wastewater services, structural

13 insufficiencies, and overcrowding:

14 (A) 28 percent, or 10,400,000, rural

15 households in the United States live with some

16 kind of serious housing problem.

17 (B) Approximately 1,000,000 rural renters

18 have multiple housing problems.

19 (C) An estimated 2,600,000 rural house20 holds live in substandard housing with severe

21 structural damage or without indoor plumbing,

22 heat, or electricity.

23 (3) One third of all renters in rural America

24 pay more than 30 percent of their income for hous25 ing:
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1 (A) 20 percent of rural renters pay more

2 than 50 percent of their income for housing.

3 (C) 92 percent of all rural renters with sig4 nificant housing problems pay more than 50

5 percent of their income for housing costs, and

6 60 percent paying more than 70 percent of

7 their income for housing.

8 (4) Rural economies are often less diverse, and

9 therefore, jobs and economic opportunity are limited:

10 (A) Factors existing in rural environments,

11 such as remoteness and low population destiny,

12 lead to limited access to many forces driving

13 the economy, such as technology, lending, and

14 investment.

15 (B) Local expertise is often limited in rural

16 areas where the economies are focused on farm17 ing and/or natural resource-based industries.

18 (5) Rural areas have less access to credit than

19 metropolitan areas:

20 (A) Banks and other investors, looking for

21 larger projects with lower risk, seek metropoli22 tan areas for loans and investment.

23 (B) Often, credit that is available is insuf24 ficient, leading to the need for interim or bridge

25 financing.
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1 (C) Credit in rural areas is often more ex2 pensive and available at less favorable terms

3 than in metropolitan areas.

4 (6) The Federal Government investment in

5 rural rental housing has dropped during the last 10

6 years, as—

7 (A) Federal spending for rural rental hous8 ing has been cut by 73 percent since 1994; and

9 (B) Rural rental housing unit production

10 financed by the Federal Government has been

11 reduced by 88 percent since 1990.

12 (7) To address the scarcity of rural rental hous13 ing, the Federal Government must work in partner14 ship with State and local governments, private finan15 cial institutions, private philanthropic institutions,

16 and the private sector, including nonprofit organiza17 tions.

18 SEC. 3. DEFINITIONS.

19 In this Act:

20 (1) ELIGIBLE RURAL AREA.—The term ‘‘eligible

21 rural area’’ means a rural area with a population of

22 not more than 25,000, as determined by the most

23 recent decennial census of the United States, and lo24 cated outside an urbanized area.
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1 (2) ELIGIBLE PROJECT.—The term ‘‘eligible

2 project’’ means a project for the acquisition, reha3 bilitation, or construction of rental housing and re4 lated facilities in an eligible rural area for occupancy

5 by low-income families.

6 (3) ELIGIBLE SPONSOR.—The term ‘‘eligible

7 sponsor’’ means a public agency, an Indian tribe, a

8 for-profit corporation, or a private nonprofit

9 corporation—

10 (A) a purpose of which is planning, devel11 oping, or managing housing or community de12 velopment projects in rural areas; and

13 (B) that has a record of accomplishment in

14 housing or community development and meets

15 other criteria established by the Secretary by

16 regulation.

17 (4) LOW-INCOME FAMILIES.—The term ‘‘low-in18 come families’’ has the meaning given the term in

19 section 3(b) of the United States Housing Act of

20 1937 (42 U.S.C. 1437a(b)).

21 (5) QUALIFIED INTERMEDIARY.—The term

22 ‘‘qualified intermediary’’ means a State, a State

23 agency designated by the Governor of the State, a

24 private nonprofit community development corpora25 tion, a nonprofit housing corporation, a community
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1 development loan fund, or a community development

2 credit union, that—

3 (A) has a record of providing technical and

4 financial assistance for housing and community

5 development activities in rural areas; and

6 (B) has a demonstrated technical and fi7 nancial capacity to administer assistance made

8 available under this Act.

9 (7) SECRETARY.—The term ‘‘Secretary’’ means

10 the Secretary of Agriculture.

11 (8) STATE.—The term ‘‘State’’ means the

12 States of the United States, the Commonwealth of

13 Puerto Rico, the District of Columbia, the Common14 wealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, Guam, the

15 Virgin Islands, American Samoa, the Trust Terri16 tories of the Pacific, and any other possession of the

17 United States.

18 SEC. 4. RURAL RENTAL HOUSING ASSISTANCE.

19 (a) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary may, directly or

20 through 1 or more qualified intermediaries in accordance

21 with section 5, make assistance available to eligible spon22 sors in the form of loans, grants, interest subsidies, annu23 ities, and other forms of financing assistance, to finance

24 the eligible projects.

25 (b) APPLICATIONS.—
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1 (1) IN GENERAL.—To be eligible to receive as2 sistance under this section, an eligible sponsor shall

3 submit to the Secretary, or a qualified intermediary,

4 an application in such form and containing such in5 formation as the Secretary shall require by regula6 tion.

7 (2) AFFORDABILITY RESTRICTION.—Each ap8 plication under this subsection shall include a certifi9 cation by the applicant that the housing to be ac10 quired, rehabilitated, or constructed with assistance

11 under this section will remain affordable for low-in12 come families for not less than 30 years.

13 (c) PRIORITY FOR ASSISTANCE.—In selecting among

14 applicants for assistance under this section, the Secretary,

15 or a qualified intermediary, shall give priority to providing

16 assistance to eligible projects—

17 (1) for very low-income families (as defined in

18 section 3(b) of the United States Housing Act of

19 1937 (42 U.S.C. 1437a(b)); and

20 (2) in low-income communities or in commu21 nities with a severe lack of affordable rental housing,

22 in eligible rural areas, as determined by the Sec23 retary; or

24 (3) applications submitted by public agencies,

25 Indian tribes, private nonprofit corporations or lim-
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1 ited dividend corporations in which the general part2 ner is a non-profit entity whose principal purposes

3 include planning, developing and managing low-in4 come housing and community development projects.

5 (d) ALLOCATION OF ASSISTANCE.—In carrying out

6 this section, the Secretary shall allocate assistance among

7 the States, taking into account the incidence of rural sub8 standard housing and rural poverty in each State and the

9 State’s share of the national total of such indices.

10 (e) LIMITATIONS ON AMOUNT OF ASSISTANCE.—

11 (1) IN GENERAL.—Except as provided in para12 graph (2), assistance made available under this Act

13 may not exceed 50 percent of the total cost of the

14 eligible project.

15 (2) EXCEPTION.—Assistance authorized under

16 this Act shall not exceed 75 percent of the total cost

17 of the eligible project, if the project is for the acqui18 sition, rehabilitation, or construction of not more

19 than 20 rental housing units for use by very low-in20 come families.

21 SEC. 5. DELEGATION OF AUTHORITY.

22 (a) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary may delegate au23 thority for distribution of assistance to one or more quali24 fied intermediaries in the State. Such delegation shall be

25 for a period of not more than 3 years, and shall be subject
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1 to renewal, in the discretion of the Secretary, for 1 or

2 more additional periods of not to exceed 3 years.

3 (b) SOLICITATION.—

4 (1) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary may, in the

5 discretion of the Secretary, solicit applications from

6 qualified intermediaries for a delegation of authority

7 under this section.

8 (2) CONTENTS OF APPLICATION.—Each appli9 cation under this subsection shall include—

10 (A) a certification that the applicant will—

11 (i) provide matching funds from

12 sources other than this Act in an amount

13 that is not less than the amount of assist14 ance provided to the applicant under this

15 section; and

16 (ii) distribute assistance to eligible

17 sponsors in the State in accordance with

18 section 4; and

19 (B) a description of—

20 (i) the State or the area within a

21 State to be served;

22 (ii) in the incidence of poverty and

23 substandard housing in the State or area

24 to be served;
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1 (iii) the technical and financial quali2 fications of the applicant; and

3 (iv) the assistance sought and a pro4 posed plan for the distribution of such as5 sistance in accordance with section 4.

6 SEC. 6. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.

7 There is authorized to be appropriated to carry out

8 this Act $250,000,000 for each of fiscal years 2001

9 through 2005.

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