A US Representative recently had a bill he led that was signed into law.
Iowa’s Third Congressional District Representative Zach Nunn says The Promote Affordable Rural Housing Act was a bi-partisan effort which he led with Representative Wiley Nickle (D-North Carolina), who co-led the legislation, that allows non-profits, municipalities, and tribal governments to better utilize the US Department of Agriculture Section 524 loan program. Nunn tells Raccoon Valley Radio these entities can use this loan to purchase or develop housing sites for low to moderate income families. This loan had a two year repayment and Nunn’s legislation extended it to five years. Nunn talks about other avenues his bill provides.
“It also expands the use of what you can use this loan for. Some of the things we heard back were like, ‘Just being able to survey the land, do the architectural development and the engineering (of) the structure were the biggest front-end costs that prohibited rural housing from being successful.’ Giving both counties and cities the ability to really take advantage of this for expanding their first time and affordable housing stock for an entire community.”
Nunn believes this bill is one part that will help the 7.3 million shortage of affordable available rental homes for low to moderate income renters in this country. He adds that in Iowa alone, over ten percent of the state’s population lives in poverty and about 40 percent of renters spend their income on housing. The bill was introduced in the House on February 5th and it was passed by both the House and Senate and signed into law by President Joe Biden on March 8th. Click the link below to see the bill.