109 HR 5373 IH: Rural Rental Housing Act of
U.S. House of Representatives
2006-05-11
text/xml
EN
Pursuant to Title 17 Section 105 of the United States Code, this file is not subject to copyright protection and is in the public domain.
1.This Act may be cited as the
Rural Rental Housing Act of
2006
.
2.Congress makes the following
findings:
(1)There is a
pressing and increasing need for housing in the United States for families and
senior citizens in rural areas, as evidenced by the fact that—
(A)28 percent, or
10,400,000, of rural households in the United States live with some kind of
serious housing problem; and
(B)an estimated
2,600,000 rural households live in substandard housing with severe structural
damage or without indoor plumbing, heat, or electricity.
(2)There is an acute
shortage of affordable rental housing exists in the rural United States, as
evidenced by the fact that—
(A)two-thirds of
extremely low-income and very low-income rural households do not have access to
affordable rental housing units;
(B)36 percent of all
rural renters pay more than 30 percent of their income for housing, and 20
percent pay more than 50 percent of their income for housing; and
(C)92 percent of all
renters with significant housing problems pay more than 50 percent of their
income for housing costs, and 60 percent pay more than 70 percent of their
income for housing.
(3)Many rural renters
live with serious housing problems, including a lack of basic water and
wastewater services, structural insufficiencies, and overcrowding, as evidenced
by the fact that—
(A)more than 900,000
rural rental households (10.4 percent of all such households) live in either
moderately or severely inadequate housing; and
(B)approximately
1,000,000 rural renters have multiple housing problems.
(4)Rural economies
are often less diverse, and therefore, jobs and economic opportunity are
limited because—
(A)factors that exist
in rural environments, such as remoteness and low population density, lead to
limited access to many forces driving the economy, such as technology, lending,
and investment; and
(B)local expertise is
often limited in rural areas where the economies are focused on farming or
natural resource-based industries.
(5)Rural areas have
less access to credit than metropolitan areas, because—
(A)banks and other
investors that look for larger projects with lower risk seek metropolitan areas
for loans and investment;
(B)credit that is
available is often insufficient, leading to the need for interim or bridge
financing; and
(C)credit in rural
areas is often more expensive and available at less favorable terms than in
metropolitan areas.
(6)The Federal
Government investment in rural rental housing has dropped during the last 10
years, as evidenced by the fact that—
(A)Federal spending
for rural rental housing has been cut by 77 percent since 1994; and
(B)rural rental
housing unit production financed by the Federal Government has been reduced by
88 percent since 1990.
(7)To address the
scarcity of rural rental housing, the Federal Government must work in
partnership with State and local governments, private financial institutions,
private philanthropic institutions, and the private sector, including nonprofit
organizations.
3.For purposes of this Act, the following
definitions shall apply:
(1)The term eligible project
means a project
for the acquisition, rehabilitation, or construction of rental housing and
related facilities in an eligible rural area for occupancy by low-income
families.
(2)The term eligible rural area
means a rural
area that—
(A)has a population
of not more than 25,000, as determined by the most recent decennial census of
the United States; and
(B)is located outside
an urbanized area.
(3)The term eligible sponsor
means—
(A)a public
agency;
(B)an Indian
tribe;
(C)a for-profit
corporation; or
(D)a private
nonprofit corporation—
(i)a
purpose of which is planning, developing, or managing housing or community
development projects in rural areas;
(ii)that has a record
of accomplishment in housing or community development; and
(iii)that meets other
criteria established by the Secretary by regulation.
(4)The term low-income families
has the
meaning given such term in section 3(b) of the United States Housing Act of
1937 (42 U.S.C. 1437a(b)).
(5)The term qualified intermediary
means
a State, a State agency designated by the Governor of the State, a public
instrumentality of the State, a private nonprofit community development
corporation, a nonprofit housing corporation, a community development loan
fund, or a community development credit union, that—
(A)has a record of
providing technical and financial assistance for housing and community
development activities in rural areas; and
(B)has a demonstrated
technical and financial capacity to administer assistance made available under
this Act.
(6)The
term Secretary
means the Secretary of Agriculture.
(7)The
term State
means each of the several States of the United
States, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, the District of Columbia, the
Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, Guam, the Virgin Islands,
American Samoa, and any other possession of the United States.
4.Rural rental
housing assistance
(a)The Secretary may, directly or through one or more
qualified intermediaries in accordance with section 5, make assistance
available under this Act to eligible sponsors in the form of loans, grants,
interest subsidies, annuities, and other forms of financing assistance, to
finance the eligible projects.
(b)
(1)To be eligible to receive assistance under this section,
an eligible sponsor shall submit to the Secretary, or a qualified intermediary,
an application in such form and containing such information as the Secretary
shall, by regulation, require.
(2)Affordability
restrictionEach application under this subsection shall include
a certification by the applicant that the housing to be acquired,
rehabilitated, or constructed with assistance under this section will remain
affordable for low-income families for not less than 30 years.
(c)In selecting among applicants for assistance under
this section, the Secretary, or a qualified intermediary, shall give priority
to providing assistance to eligible projects—
(1)for very
low-income families (as such term is defined in section 3(b) of the United
States Housing Act of 1937 (42 U.S.C. 1437a(b));
(2)in low-income
communities or in communities with a severe lack of affordable rental housing,
in eligible rural areas, as determined by the Secretary; or
(3)if
the applications are submitted by public agencies, Indian tribes, private
nonprofit corporations or limited dividend corporations in which the general
partner is a non-profit entity whose principal purposes include planning,
developing and managing low-income housing and community development
projects.
(d)
(1)In carrying out this section, the Secretary shall
allocate assistance among the States taking into consideration the incidence of
rural substandard housing and rural poverty in each State and the share of that
State of the national total of such incidence.
(2)To the extent sufficient amounts are made available for
assistance under this Act, in making allocations under paragraph (1), the
Secretary shall provide each State an amount not less than $2,000,000.
(e)Limitations on
amount of assistance
(1)Except as provided in paragraph (2), assistance made
available under this Act for an eligible project may not exceed 50 percent of
the total cost of such project.
(2)In the case of any eligible project for the
acquisition, rehabilitation, or construction of not more than 20 rental housing
units for use by very low-income families, assistance made available under this
Act may not exceed 75 percent of the total cost of such project.
5.
(a)The Secretary may delegate authority for distribution, in
a State, of assistance under this Act—
(1)to
one or more qualified intermediaries in the State; and
(2)for a period of
not more than 3 years, upon the expiration of which such delegation of
authority shall be subject to renewal, in the discretion of the Secretary, for
one or more additional periods of not more than 3 years.
(b)
(1)The Secretary may, in the discretion of the Secretary,
solicit applications from qualified intermediaries for a delegation of
authority under this section.
(2)Each application under this subsection shall
include—
(A)a certification
that the applicant will—
(i)provide matching
funds from sources other than this Act in an amount that is not less than the
amount of assistance provided to the applicant under this section; and
(ii)distribute
assistance to eligible sponsors in the State in accordance with section 4;
and
(B)a description
of—
(i)the
State or the area within a State to be served;
(ii)the
incidence of poverty and substandard housing in the State or area to be
served;
(iii)the
technical and financial qualifications of the applicant; and
(iv)the
assistance sought and a proposed plan for the distribution of such assistance
in accordance with section 4.
(3)The Secretary may, in the discretion of the
Secretary, seek application by qualified intermediaries for more than one
State.
6.Authorization of
appropriationsThere is
authorized to be appropriated to carry out this Act $250,000,000 for each of
fiscal years 2007 through 2011.