Rural housing grants can be used to preserve, repair or build housing.
The USDA has established rural housing development grants that can be used to renovate older buildings, establish new dwellings or repair existing structures. Most of these grants, however, are made available only to nonprofit organizations or local governments that may distribute the funds to qualifying individuals.
Housing Preservation/Repair
Housing preservation grant money must be used for renovation or repair of low-income housing.
The USDA's housing preservation grants are awarded to local governments and nonprofit organizations for the renovation of multiunit rental complexes used by low-income families. People who may be helped by this type of grant must be homeowners, landlords or co-ops that own low-income (people making 50 to 80 percent of the area median income) or very low-income (people making less than 50 percent of the area median income) housing facilities. The funds must be used within two years of receipt for repair or renovation of properties.
Farm Labor Housing
Farm labor housing grants are used to build or repair laborer housing.
The Farm Labor Housing grant provides funds for buying, repairing or building dwellings for local farm labor and/or other facilities for use by the laborers. This might include a community room or day-care accommodations. A farm labor grant request can cover as much as 90 percent of the development costs. These grants can be requested by public nonprofit organizations and even by individual farmers. For more information about this program you may visit the USDA website.
Mutual Self-Help
Mutual self help grants fund teams of community members to repair their own homes.
A Mutual Self-Help Housing grant supplies funding to enable low-income families to work on their homes themselves. This involves a community group effort of 10 to 12 participants enrolled in the program. All the members of the group work on each other's home until all the homes are repaired. Only then can the members move into their respective homes. These grants are given to nonprofit organizations and/or local governments that supervise the repair teams. For more information, visit the USDA website for rural and community development programs.
Tags: nonprofit organizations, local governments, area median, area median income, farm labor
