Rural Capacity Building for Community Development and Affordable Housing Program

NALCAB issued their first loan under the HUD Rural Capacity Building FY 13 TA Award to the Colorado Rural Housing Development Corporation (CRHDC) in Alamosa, CO. NALCAB carved out $400k from the $1M FY 13 budget, to serve as seed money to establish our Rural Revolving Loan Fund. The loan is for a 10 acre tract of land that will produce 28 new units of Self Help single family Housing for LMI families.

With financial assistance from the Housing Assistance Council’s RCB grant supported loan fund, the Western Region Nonprofit Housing Corporation renovated a 62-unit apartment complex to provide much needed housing for low income families in Moscow, Idaho.

RCAC ran a tribal housing academy using RCB grant funds to support tribal development organizations through early stage development projects. Assistance and education provided to the Santo Domingo Housing Authority (SDHA) helped the organization to better scope their project, work through development obstacles, and understand how to access necessary resources and funding. As a result of this capacity building assistance, SDHA broke ground on a 41 unit affordable rental housing development that will also include a community center, daycare facility, recreation space, community gardens, and access to commuter rail transit.

Rural Capacity Building Program Summary

Through the funding of national organizations with expertise in rural housing and community development, the Rural Capacity Building Program (RCB) enhances the capacity and ability of local governments, Indian tribes, housing development organizations, rural Community Development Corporations (CDCs), and rural Community Housing Development Organizations (CHDOs), to carry out community development and affordable housing activities that benefit low- and moderate-income families and persons in rural areas.

Eligible Activities

Funds may be used to provide the following activities:

Technical assistance, training, support, and advice to develop the business and administrative capabilities of rural community-based housing development organizations, CDCs, CHDOs, local governments, and Indian tribes
Loans, grants, or other financial assistance to rural community-based housing development organizations, CDCs, CHDOs, and local governments in addition to Indian tribes to carry out community development and affordable housing activities for low- and moderate-income families and persons, including the acquisition, construction, or rehabilitation of housing for low-income families and persons, and community and economic development activities that create jobs for low-income persons
Such other activities as may be determined by the grantees in consultation with the Secretary or his or her designee.

Additional Information

The Office of Policy Development and Coordination in HUD's Office of Community Planning and Development administers the competition.

For information, contact capacitybuilding@hud.gov.

Rural Beneficiary Mapping Tool

In the FY 2018 NOFA the definition of rural area was updated. For the grant program, a rural area is a statistical geographic entity delineated by the Census Bureau that does not meet the definition of an urbanized area. An urbanized area is a statistical geographic entity delineated by the Census Bureau, consisting of densely settled census tracts and blocks and adjacent densely settled territory that together contain at least 50,000 people. As of the 2010 decennial census, the United States contained 486 urbanized areas with an additional 11 in Puerto Rico. For more information about urbanized areas, including maps, FAQs, and reference manuals, please refer to the Census Bureau website. To demonstrate that a beneficiary complies with the rural area requirement, grantees will be expected to implement a review process to confirm that the proposed rural beneficiary is physically located within an eligible rural area or, as a result of capacity building grant assistance, will be commencing or expanding service in an eligible rural area. HUD has created the embedded mapping tool for capacity building grantees to utilize in assessing a beneficiary’s compliance with the rural area definition.

Rural Gateway

The Rural Gateway is an information clearinghouse providing technical assistance, training workshops, and peer learning and resource sharing to support rural housing and economic development.