Celebrating Fifty Years: 1969 to 2019
This year marks the 50 year Anniversary of the NRHC. The original by-laws for the Coalition were adopted on October 31, 1969 and the organization was incorporated in the District of Columbia on December 17, 1969. Among the signers on the articles of incorporation: Clay Cochran and Jim Hightower, who was the first NRHC employee.
Below, take a trip back through the history of the organization. We’ve collected reports, articles, and news clippings.
Reports, Letters, Testimony
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Jun, 1971
2/3 of our nation’s bad housing is in rural areas and small towns
Poster created by the Rural Housing Coalition in 1971 ...
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Feb, 1972
Letter to Nixon From Senators on Farmworker Housing Shortage
Letter from Senators Kennedy, Cranston, Hatfield, Stevenson, Case, Williams, Javits, Brooke, Hart, McGovern, Tunney, Moss, and Harris to Nixon ...
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Jul, 1973
Rural Housing Alliance News Service: George Rucker Testimony
Nearly one million families In rural areas, on the average, can only afford $14 a month for rent according to George Rucker, research director of the Rural Housing Alliance who testified today on the nation's rural housing needs before the ...
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Nov, 1975
The Right to a Decent Home: A Pastoral Response to the Crisis in Housing
A Statement of the Catholic Bishops of the United States, November 20, 1975, citing research by the National Rural Housing Coalition showing that in 1976:The one percent of the population with incomes over $50,000 will receive more than ten percent ...
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Oct, 1995
Letter in Support of the Homesteading and Neighborhood Restoration Act of 1995
"Dear Mr. Chairman: I am writing to you to indicate our support for HR 1691, the Homesteading and Neighborhood Restoration Act of 1995. We support passage of HR 1691 because of the provisions of the bill related to rural rental ...
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Dec, 1995
Delivery Systems for Affordable Rural Housing Finance
This paper was written by Paul Cohn, National Rural Housing Foundation, Washington DC and prepared for the Fannie Mae Foundation by the National Rural Housing Foundation ...
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Dec, 2000
Opening Doors to Rural Homeownership (2000)
Outcomes from the National Rural Housing Coalition Rural Homeownership Symposium in 2000 ...
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Jun, 2001
Recommendations to the Millennial Housing Commission
The National Rural Housing Coalition (NRHC) is a national membership organization that advocates for better housing and community development programs and policies for rural areas. NRHC is pleased to provide the Millennial Housing Commission with the following recommendations on rural ...
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Dec, 2003
Opening Doors to Rural Homeownership (2003)
Outcomes from the National Rural Housing Coalition Rural Homeownership Symposium ...
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Dec, 2003
Letter: Congressional Rural Housing Caucus Forms
Dear Chairman, As required by the rules of the House, we are writing to officially inform you of our intention to form the Congressional Rural Housing Caucus, and to request the registration of the Caucus as a Congressional Member Organization ...
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Sep, 2006
NRHC Members in Action – 2006
The report is a collection of project descriptions and success stories submitted by 28 NRHC member organizations in 19 states. Each page offers a glimpse into the work being performed by an organization dedicated to addressing the housing and community ...
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May, 2007
Peter Carey Testifies on the FY 2008 USDA Budget
Madame Chairwoman my name is Peter Carey, I am the Executive Director of Self Help Enterprises and I am also past president and current board member of the National Rural Housing Coalition. The lead federal agency for providing assistance to ...
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Jul, 2007
Joe Myer Testifies on National Housing Trust proposal
Chairman Frank, Ranking Member Baucus, Congressman Michael Castle from my home state of Delaware, and Members of the Committee, my name is Joe Myer and I am the Executive Director of NCALL, Research, Inc. and a current board member of ...
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Sep, 2008
NRHC Members in Action – 2008
Serving America’s Rural Housing & Community Development Needs: National Rural Housing Coalition Members in Action” contains a collection of project descriptions and success stories ...
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Sep, 2009
NRHC Members in Action – 2009
“Serving America’s Rural Housing & Community Development Needs: National Rural Housing Coalition Members in Action” contains a collection of project descriptions and success stories submitted by 24 NRHC member organizations in 16 states ...
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Dec, 2012
Opening Doors to Rural Homeownership (2012)
The purpose of this report is to document successful federal strategies for providing affordable housing to low-income rural families ...
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Mar, 2013
2013 NRHC Impact Survey Report
NRHC’s Impact Survey shows that in 2012, nonprofit rural housing organizations helped lowincome rural families secure over $890 million in financing to build or purchase 8,392 units of housing, and helped 32,819 rural families gain access to clean and affordable ...
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Jun, 2014
Rural America’s Rental Housing Crisis
The purpose of this report is to analyze federal strategies to preserve affordable, rural rental housing. In addition, this report identifies workable policy solutions to help Congress and the Administration use its limited resources to most effectively serve low-income, rural ...
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Dec, 2014
Opening Doors to Rural Homeownership (2014)
This report analyzes the impact of the Section 502 Direct Loan program and the Section 523 Mutual Self-Help Housing program.By examining the successful track records of these programs, and by adopting practical measures to expand and improve their performance, our ...
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Dec, 2014
Impact Report – The Economic and Human Impact of Nonprofit Organizations in Rural America
In the fall of 2014, the National Rural Housing Coalition (NRHC) surveyed 107 nonprofit, rural housing organizations—serving low-income families in rural communities throughout all 50 states, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands—on their activity in their last completed fiscal ...
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Nov, 2015
Mutual Self-Help Housing Program Briefing and Reception
On Tuesday, November 17, 2015, the National Rural Housing Coalition (NRHC) along with the National Rural Self-Help Housing Association (NRSHHA) hosted a Briefing in celebration of the 50th Anniversary and the 50,000th family served through the mutual self-help housing program ...
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Nov, 2015
Report: Reflecting on 50 Years of Success
Throughout rural America communities confront the lack of safe and affordable housing. Rural communities have less access to affordable credit options and lower incomes, which in turn leads to increased instances of persistent poverty. Additionally, many rural communities face substandard ...
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Sep, 2017
Journal of Affordable Housing and Community Development – Rural Housing in Modern America
A report by Audrey Johnston for the Journal of Affordable Housing and Community Development ...
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Jul, 2018
Rural Organizations Join in Opposition to White House Proposal to Shift USDA Rural Programs to HUD
Press release ...
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Oct, 2018
Congress Deals Rural Housing Organizations a Mixed Hand
Press Release: Congress holds on passing rural housing funding, despite strong indications for the need and history of strong bipartisan support ...
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Feb, 2019
Shutdown Impacts Rural Housing
Click to enlarge As the budget stalemate in Washington drags on the consequences and impacts are becoming clearer and increasingly disturbing. Without any justification, the Administration has closed 25 percent of the federal government and among the casualties are agencies ...
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Articles & News Clippings
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Dec, 1969
10 Texans Help Found New Housing Coalition
Ten Texans are among the more than 100 founders of a National Rural Housing Coalition, organized Friday to work for better conditions for the more than six million rural American families ...
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Dec, 1969
National Rural Housing Coalition Incorporated in DC
The NRHC was incorporated in the District of Columbia on December 17, 1969. Among the signers on the articles of incorporation: Clay Cochran and Jim Hightower, who was the first NRHC employee ...
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Jan, 1971
Administration believed cutting rural home funds
Plans to spend $1.4 billion on low-income rural housing this fiscal year are reported to have been cut one-third by the Nixon administration. Advocates of the program say it has no budgetary impact and such a cut is unnecessary ...
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Jan, 1974
Senators praised for housing action
South Carolina's two senators were among eight members of Congress singled out for praise by the National Rural Housing Coalition ...
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Mar, 1978
Home-purchase plan for the poor gets support
"Providing very-low-income families with the opportunity for homeownership acts as an effective incentive for them to maintain their homes," said Rosalie Reichman of the National Rural Housing Coalition ...
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Dec, 1980
Report: Farmworker Conditions Much Better
The Rural Housing Coalition endorsed a report showing federal funding for farmworker housing has made a positive difference ...
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Jul, 1982
Rural housing aid faces sharp cuts
Critics charge the bill would devastate the rural poor and sound "the death knell of rural housing construction." ...
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Feb, 1985
Reagan’s Budget Big Threat to Rural America
"many of the cuts would hit rural America hard, on items ranging from telephones to electricity to bus service, housing, water and sewers..." ...
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Apr, 1990
Lawmakers differ on rural aid plans
"What the House bill did was attempt to take money from low-income communities and use it to make grants and loans to businesses," said Bob Rapoza of the nonprofit National Rural Housing Coalition ...
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Aug, 1990
Relief funds don’t filter down to rural poor, study concludes
"Federal support for rural development was cut by nearly 70 percent during the Reagan administration. Yet the majority of the remaining funds failed to reach the neediest rural communities. The federal response to these communities has been plainly inadequate." -Robert ...
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Jul, 1995
House slashes housing loans for rural poor
Federal housing loans for poor, rural, families were cut nearly in half by the House Friday ...
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Oct, 1995
Feds Scale Back Rural Development Programs
Rural advocates say that while the funding is more generous than it might have been, given the budget cutting mood in Congress, rural America will suffer ...
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Dec, 2003
Rural Housing Money Drying Up
The USDA is using its funds to subsidize rents and not build more apartments ...
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Jun, 2013
USDA Rural Development Program Faces Cuts, Despite Strong Demand
But some say rural housing hasn't been a funding priority. Bob Rapoza with the National Rural Housing Coalition points out that since 2010, funding was reduced by $400 million. The USDA's budget request cuts $100 million more from rural development ...
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Dec, 2018
‘It’s like we don’t exist’: California’s invisible rural housing crisis
Much has been written about the housing shortage in US cities from Boston to Boise. But behind the headlines, an unnoticed crisis is growing in America’s countryside. ... Bob Rapoza, executive secretary of the National Rural Housing Coalition in Washington, ...
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Jan, 2019
Food stamps, rent aid and the safety net for American’s poorest at risk as shutdown drags on
If the government does not fully reopen by Feb. 1, nearly 270,000 rural families who receive federal rent subsidies through the USDA would also be at risk of eviction because their landlords would no longer be paid, said Bob Rapoza, ...
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Apr, 2019
Housing’s hidden crisis: Rural Americans struggle to pay rent
The Trump administration’s proposed 2020 budget also contains cuts for rural housing programs, Stan Keasling, president of National Rural Housing Coalition, said in testimony at the Congressional hearing earlier this month. The cuts target “a laundry list” of programs, including ...
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