Rural Housing Discussed With Agriculture Secretary
In a meeting with Secretary of Agriculture Mike Johanns on April 25, NAHB Immediate Past President Bobby Rayburn and Jess Hall, a builder from Palmer, Alaska, and chairman of the NAHB Housing Finance Committee, reiterated the importance of the Rural Housing Service's (RHS) multifamily and single-family loan programs in helping to provide safe, decent and affordable housing for rural families. In recent years, the service’s multifamily programs have been severely underfunded, preventing them from being used to build any new affordable housing. Also, many of the multifamily properties in the RHS portfolio are in dire need of rehabilitation. Rayburn urged Johanns to include NAHB as a stakeholder in discussions seeking solutions to the multifamily dilemma. Hall expressed NAHB’s appreciation for the U.S. Forest Service's exemption of the Tongass National Forest in Alaska from the Roadless Area Conservation Rule, commonly known as the Roadless Rule. The Tongass exemption will allow local communities such as Ketchikan to continue to survive and grow, Hall said. Timber from the Tongass accounts for a significant percentage of the volume processed by local mills in southeast Alaska, and curtailing it would take a devastating toll on jobs and local communities and businesses. Both Rayburn and Hall praised the Department of Agriculture for its efforts to make Rural Housing Service eligibility information available on the Internet. To visit the site, click here; included are links to loan program basics, maps of eligible areas and household income levels. For more information, e-mail Bill Renner at NAHB, or call him at 800-368-5242 x8597. | 
