Reps. Cleaver and Waters Advocate for Reforms, Additional Investments in Rural Housing Programs

(Washington, D.C.) – Today, U.S. Representatives Emanuel Cleaver, II (D-MO), Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on Housing and Insurance, and Maxine Waters, Ranking Member of the House Committee on Financial Services, called for increased investments and critical reforms in federal rural housing programs to provide support to rural residents in Missouri and across the country. In a letter signed by 30 House Democrats, Cleaver and Waters are asking Congress to provide robust federal funding and implement needed fixes to the Rural Development Voucher Program, the Section 521 Rental Assistance Program, and other programs administered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Rural Housing Service.

In the letter to the Chairwoman and Ranking Member of the House Committee on Appropriations, Cleaver and Waters wrote:

“As you consider the fiscal year (FY) 2024 appropriations bill for Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies, we urge you to provide relief for thousands of rural residents who may otherwise face significant rent increases or displacement.”

The USDA supports affordable rental housing options by making direct loans to developers to finance housing projects for farm labor, as well as low-income, elderly and disabled individuals in rural communities. As part of this program, USDA also provides rental assistance (RA) to tenants, capping their rent contribution at 30 percent of their income. However, as property owners pay off those loans in full, they are no longer required to offer affordable rental rates – and at the same time, tenants living in those properties are no longer eligible for USDA’s Rental Assistance. Nationally, nearly 400,000 households, often elderly and low-income, live in 14,000 properties backed by these USDA multifamily loans, with an average household income of $13,000. However, new construction in these USDA programs has been largely non-existent for more than a decade, and at the current pace nearly all existing loans will have matured by 2050. As those loans mature or are prepaid, rural Americans are left with fewer and fewer affordable rental options.

To protect rural renters and the supply of rental housing in rural communities, Cleaver and Waters are calling on Congress to:

• Provide additional funding and extend eligibility for the Rural Development Voucher Program to help the RVDP meet increased demand and ensure all residents of Section 514 and 515 properties remain eligible for the RVDP when mortgage loans for properties mature.
• Increase federal investments to preserve affordable rental housing in rural communities by strengthening the Multifamily Preservation & Revitalization Demonstration program and providing more than $300 million for the Section 514, 515, and 516 programs.
• Fully fund the Section 521 Rental Assistance program, which was is designed to keep rents affordable for low-income rural tenants and was expanded through the American Rescue Plan to assist an additional 27,000 households in more than 3,700 properties.

The official letter from Ranking Members Cleaver and Waters is available here.

Emanuel Cleaver, II is the U.S. Representative for Missouri's Fifth Congressional District, which includes Kansas City, Independence, Lee's Summit, Raytown, Grandview, Sugar Creek, Greenwood, Blue Springs, North Kansas City, Gladstone, and Claycomo. He is a member of the exclusive House Financial Services Committee and Ranking Member of the House Subcommittee on Housing and Insurance. For more information, please contact Matt Helfant at 202-590-0175 or Matthew.Helfant@mail.house.gov