Strengthening Community-Based Housing in the Mid-South Delta, a new report from the Housing Assistance Council (HAC), recommends strategies to increase affordable housing in the Delta. HAC, a nonprofit organization that supports affordable housing in rural communities, draws from its recent survey of 23 community-based organizations (CBOs) in Arkansas, Louisiana, and Mississippi to present some of the challenges that CBOs face in expanding affordable housing development. The report then recommends strategies to address these challenges. According to the report, one of the biggest challenges that CBOs face in expanding affordable housing in the Delta is how to increase the number of low-income persons who qualify for subsidized mortgage programs. To address this challenge, the report recommends that CBOs invest in credit education and repair programs, offer savings incentives for low-income homebuyers, and form homebuyer clubs. Another challenge presented is how to improve the Rural Housing Service Section 502 low-income mortgage programs (direct loan and guaranteed) to better serve the targeted audience. The report suggests that changing the formula for computing loan interest from reliance on area median income to a formula based on participants paying 20 percent of their adjusted annual income to principal, interest, taxes, and insurance will provide more cost equity to low-income rural buyers. Also it recommends adding a credit counseling and repair component to build opportunities for borrowers to meet Section 502 debt-to-income limitations. Increasing the Delta States' support for low-income housing and capacity building for community-based housing development organizations is the next issue presented in the report. The recommended strategy is to focus HOME and Community Development Block Grant State allocations to provide more assistance to community housing development organizations, encourage sweat-equity programs, and fund housing rehabilitation and low-income mortgage purchases. To involve public housing agencies in Delta homeownership efforts, the report recommends using Section 8 funds, the Delta's prevailing direct housing subsidy, as a downpayment and financing vehicle to provide additional homeownership subsidies to qualified borrowers. Increasing Delta communities' participation in HOME program funding is another challenge facing the region. The report recommends forming consortia of Delta counties that share in-State boundaries to receive direct allocations of HOME funds set aside for entitlement communities. This would result in fairer deployment of resources for low-income persons across each consortium area. Improving the access of Delta communities to housing rehabilitation resources is the final issue addressed. The report recommends that State housing authorities work with Delta counties to coordinate in-State development of rehabilitation standards to be applied to a Delta rehabilitation program. For the strategies to succeed, the informed and active support of the Delta's community-based housing organizations is needed. Practitioner-led coalitions, such as the Delta Compact and the statewide associations of community development corporations in all three States, can serve as important allies and strategic standard bearers for these recommendations. Strengthening Community-Based Housing in the Mid-South Delta is available in HTML format on HAC's website at www.ruralhome.org/pubs/publist.htm#new or for $7 by mail, including postage and handling. To request a printed copy of this report, contact Luz Rosas at (202) 842-8600, fax: (202) 347-3441, or by mail: Housing Assistance Council, 1025 Vermont Avenue NW., Suite 606, Washington, DC 20005.
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