USDA Releases ARRA Funds for Rural, Single-family Housing
Vice President Joe Biden and Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack today announced the release of $10 billion through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) in guaranteed housing loans designed to jump start economic and homeownership opportunities in rural America.
From a White House press release:
Secretary Vilsack and Vice President Biden made the announcement at a fire station in Pikeville, [North Carolina], a rural town to which [ARRA] funds are going to provide direct operating loans to farmers and ranchers, single family housing loans to rural residents and infrastructure support. Vice President Biden and Secretary Vilsack made the announcement at the Pikeville Pleasant Grove Volunteer Fire Station, which is receiving [ARRA] funds to help build a new larger facility to better enable the rural fire department to serve its community and fight fires.
Funding from [ARRA] will initially provide 15,000 rural families with $1.76 billion in loan guarantees for homeownership financing, creating or saving approximately 7,500 jobs. Once all [ARRA] funding for rural housing is released ($7 billion directly to states and $3 billion held in reserve for higher need areas), it is estimated that 42,500 jobs will be created or saved.
Georgia is set to receive $227.5 million of this total. Click here to see the state-by-state breakdown. To see how the Department of Agriculture is using and distributing ARRA funds, click here.