America is in an affordable housing crisis. At Partners for Rural Transformation (PRT), we know firsthand that this crisis reaches all corners of the country, and that the solutions for rural communities may look different. Recent housing proposals in Congress offer both opportunities to address this crisis and a clear direction for Congress to make room for solutions that work. The ability for Congress to pass current housing policies and provisions will determine whether communities in persistently poor rural regions see meaningful change in achieving homeownership.
PRT is pleased to see recent provisions in the Senate that bring essential improvements to federal housing and economic development programs, enable more efficient processes, improve access to mortgages and technical assistance, and create stronger communities and economies. Streamlined environmental reviews, updates to long-standing block grant programs, and the creation of new pilot initiatives could significantly ease the burden for local governments and nonprofits working on the ground, opening the doors of homeownership for more hard working rural families. These adjustments matter in rural places where capacity of local governments are already stretched thin.
Even more promising in the Senate housing proposal is a breakthrough around modular housing. For decades, federal policy defined “off-site” construction almost exclusively as manufactured housing, leaving modular housing without clear financing and standards. The narrow definition excluded a form of affordable housing that is game-changing in addressing the affordable housing crisis in rural regions, which face labor shortages and high construction costs associated with making traditional developments and site-built homes. By modernizing the definition, federal policymakers are creating space for modular developers, financers, and homes to be a part of the national housing solution toolkit. The federal government legitimizing modular housing provides clarity for rural counties and small towns who were awaiting the signal of federal support. For example, with this proposal PRT Partner, come dream. come build (cdcb), a developer of modular housing addressing the housing crisis in the Rio Grande Valley through their program DreamBuild, could potentially more easily expand such housing production systems across the nation. cdcb is one of the six Partners of PRT that make housing possible in some of the most historically hard to serve places across the country.
In order to capitalize on these important policy changes, it is vital that there is investment into the organizations and supporting ecosystems that bring them to life for rural and Native communities. Regional community development organizations particularly those in the Rural West, Rio Grande Valley, Deep South, Mississippi Delta, Appalachia and Native Nations often serve as one of the few (if not only) capital providers in these regions. Supporting these primary long-standing institutions with resources to ensure adequate capacity to implement promising housing changes is paramount.
Rural communities face constant tension between strong policy wins that open the door for innovation and the infrastructure and resources needed to bring them to life. For policymakers, the lesson is clear: reform cannot simply move money or dismantle regulatory hurdles; it must invest in the institutions that give rural communities the ability to implement solutions over the long-term.
If we want housing reform to succeed in all corners of the country, there must be a balance between new funding and regulatory tools and steady support of local and regional organizations, like PRT Partners: come dream. come build, (cdcb), Communities Unlimited (CU), Fahe, Hope, Oweesta, and RCAC. Together, the Partners for Rural Transformation is committed to building a housing system that is durable, adaptive, and rooted in local strengths, a system that ensures safe, affordable housing happens for this generation and ones to come.