Report Calls for Preservation of Affordable Rental Housing

ALBANY—Thousands of vulnerable New Yorkers will soon be at risk of losing their homes following the expiration of USDA-financed mortgages that provide protections and rental subsidies to tenants, according to a recent release from the Rural Housing Coalition of New York. A new report titled “Rural New Yorkers at Risk,” produced by the Regional Plan Association for the RHC, was released in February and shows that as soon as 2027, hundreds of tenants in rural communities will be subject to displacement each year—with limited options for housing and support—as decades-old programs begin to lapse.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Section 515 Program, established in 1949 by President Harry Truman, provided low-cost financing for the construction of affordable multi-family rental housing in rural communities. The 1980s and 1990s saw a building boom of these housing developments, but now the mortgages on these properties are expiring—along with regulatory protections and rental subsidies that capped rent at no more than 30 percent of income.