Washington, DC – Congressman Hinojosa sent the following letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, and President-elect Obama on Wednesday, Jan. 13, urging the inclusion of rural housing funding in the economic stimulus package. In the letter, Congressman Hinojosa emphasized the need to provide relief to America’s oft-forgotten rural communities who have been hard hit by the economic crisis.

“Time and again, the federal government has ignored the pressing needs of rural America and failed to equitably invest in its development. We have a golden opportunity with this stimulus package to supply our struggling rural communities with a shot in the arm that will improve affordable housing options and create much-needed jobs,” Hinojosa said.

The text of the letter is as follows:

Jan. 13, 2009

Dear Madame Speaker and Majority Leader Hoyer:

As you develop the stimulus package and consider various proposals, we urge you to include funding to increase rural housing production an additional 30,000 units. In particular, we urge you to include an investment of $750 million in budget authority for rural housing.

It will create more than 10,000 home ownership and self help housing units for low- and very low-income families; provide funding for the “green” renovation of some 10,000 rural units of substandard housing; and create 10,000 units of affordable rental housing in rural America. This investment will create some 75,000 jobs in rural America.

Providing funding to increase rural housing production will immediately create jobs in economically distressed rural areas while also improving the quality of life for our small towns and farming communities. In addition to enabling short term job creation as the housing production increases, funding for increased rural housing production will also produce long-term economic benefits for rural America. These funds will improve the affordability, availability and quality of housing in rural America for some time to come.

Bearing in mind our current economic situation, we feel the need to point out that for several decades before this crisis, rural America was already in economic distress. Rural communities have suffered higher poverty and unemployment rates than their metropolitan counterparts. These rural communities have had consistently higher incidents of substandard housing and rent overburden.

The financial crisis finds rural America in worse shape still. Although the sub-prime crisis is largely viewed as urban, a significant portion of micropolitan rural areas have high rates of foreclosures, and delinquencies. In 2008, the Rural Housing Service financed only 10,000 units of housing for low-income home owners and only about 600 units of rural rental housing. Many of the sources for rental housing are drying up or no longer available. As a result, multi-family housing development in rural America has come to a virtual standstill.

For these reasons and more, we strongly encourage you to include rural housing assistance in the economic stimulus package.