The California Housing Partnership Corporation (CHPC) and California Coalition for Rural Housing (CCRH), both NLIHC State Coalition Partners, have succeeded in their efforts to prevent more than 2,000 rent-assisted rural residents from losing their homes. The California Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) recently announced that it will use federal HOME funds and state resources to assist properties that are losing funds under the state’s Rental Housing Construction Program Rural Rental Assistance program (RHCP-RRA). This resolution follows months of advocacy efforts by the two organizations and the National Housing Law Project (NHLP), an NLIHC member.Established nearly 30 years ago, RHCP-RRA seeks to fill a gap in rental assistance for tenants living in rural properties built with loans subsidized by the U.S. Department of Agriculture Rural Development (USDA-RD) program. The state maintained the rental assistance contracts through 2012, providing an average of $300 a month in rent assistance to approximately 555 households. However, HCD informed property owners in late 2012 that funds were depleted due to state budget cuts, and that the program would be phased out by early 2013. CHPC became aware of this loss when a nonprofit affordable housing developer expressed frustration with its limited options to recapitalize an aging property. The property was expected to lose $98,000 of annual rental assistance from RHCP-RRA and its owner faced the choice of absorbing the loss or raising rents. Required by law to inform residents when assistance contracts are ending, other owners contacted CHPC for ways to move forward and mitigate the impact. Meanwhile, residents contacted NHLP when they received notice that their rents would increase by approximately $3,000 annually in January 2014, imposing a significant cost burden given that their average household income was $11,628 in 2012. CHPC assessed the scope of the issue, the projected impact on residents and property owners, and the resources needed to address it. The properties faced financial instability as sequestration’s deep funding cuts made it impossible for USDA-RD to step in financially. Following conversations with advocates, HCD learned that 23 of the 29 affected properties were in jurisdictions eligible for HOME funds, which could provide short-term tenant-based rental assistance; it agreed to issue contracts that would allow residents to stay in their homes for the next two years. The remaining properties will receive RHCP-RRA funds to provide replacement rental assistance over the same two-year period. The resolution was announced at CCRH’s Rural Housing Summit. Advocates applaud HCD’s resourcefulness and creativity in the midst of a funding crisis that had the potential to force hundreds of families into homelessness. Advocates will continue their work with federal and state agencies, as well as with property owners, to determine a long-term solution to the loss of RHCP-RRA funds.“These homes are an invaluable resource for very low income people in rural communities where there are few, if any, other affordable apartments,” said CCRH Executive Director Rob Weiner. “Losing the rent subsidies would have caused severe economic hardship to the residents, many of them elderly, and weakened the financial viability of this housing. We applaud HCD for stepping up.”For more information: James Pappas, CHPC, [email protected]; or Rob Weiner, CCRH, [email protected]