U.S. help is urged for rural housing
Chattanooga Times-Free Press
By Kevin Hardy
August 13, 2009

MANCHESTER, Tenn. -- Rural housing in the nation is in desperate shape and needs federal help to fix it, a federal official says.

U.S. Rep. Lincoln Davis, D-Tenn., held a rural housing summit as part of his recent annual federal funding seminar linking area businesses and governments to federal resources. The University of Tennessee Center for Industrial Services co-hosted the seminar.

"Housing in rural Tennessee, housing in rural America, is getting to a critical mass point," Rep. Davis said.

Some officials at the housing summit said the Obama administration has been encouraging cooperation between federal agencies to help address housing needs.

"We have people talking to each other, which common sense would tell you we should have been doing all along," said Pat Hoban-Moore, deputy regional director of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. "But now we're not being encouraged to. We're being directed to. I'm thrilled."

The roundtable discussion brought leaders from HUD, USDA Rural Development and the Housing Assistance Council.

"You have an open government right now who is willing to listen, who wants to change things, who wants to make things better," said Tammye Trevino, administrator of USDA Rural Development/Rural Housing.

Rep. Davis often says that his 4th Congressional District in Middle Tennessee is the fourth most rural of all 435 congressional districts in the United States. That makes rural housing an important priority for him, he said.

Rep. Davis recently reintroduced a bill to preserve funding for rural multifamily housing that started in 1949. He said many rental properties are being sold or foreclosed upon, forcing people on federal rental assistance to move out with no other place to go.

If his bill passes, "they can use a voucher then to stay there or move to another place," Rep. Davis said.

Several leaders expressed concern over the lack of affordable, quality rental housing in rural Tennessee.

Many federal agencies that aid rural housing have lost staffing and funding in the last 10 or 15 years, Rep. Davis said.

"In rural America, it seems they're being left out," he said.

Ms. Trevino said USDA Rural Development had 1,600 offices nationwide in the 1990s, but now is down to about 400.

Despite housing agencies' shrinking budgets, leaders said they are optimistic that the Obama administration will continue to fund programs that help rural Tennesseans.

"I don't know that we'll ever get back to the levels that we were at one time," Ms. Trevino said. "But I'd like to see us try to get back some of what we've lost in the last few years."

Lincoln County Mayor Peggy Bevels said her county has teamed up with the Chamber of Commerce, schools and local governments on housing issues. The fact that the federal government is working with them is a positive sign, she said.

"You're learning. That's good," Ms. Bevels said.