Rural Areas: Need For Concern?

Alright, so here's the scoop for the future of Rural Areas. To begin let me explain some things that have a lot to do with this matter:

• USDA (U.S. Department of Agriculture): One of their responsibilities is to foster rural communities
• MSA (Metropolitan Statistical Area): geographical region with a relatively high population density at its core and close economic ties throughout the area. These areas are not legally incorporated as a city or town would be and they are not administrative divisions such as counties or sovereign entities like states. Simply put they are areas in which there is a single large city that wields substantial influence over the region (ex. NYC, Chicago)

Approximately 900+ rural communities are possibly in danger of losing their status and benefits of being in such communities. Many housing groups have been pleading with congress for years to grandfather eligibility for these communities into federal rural housing programs. Congress needs to step in on the matter because the definition of a "rural" area has been the same since 1974 and many current rural areas are at risk of losing their designation regardless of the fact that they technically remain rural. The housing groups that are pleading for an intervention wrote a letter to Congress stating, “these communities are, by any measure, rural, and most will lose eligibility because they are located within Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSA).” According to the defninition set forth in 1974 communities have to be no larger than 20,000 residents and cannot be a part of a larger MSA. The groups pleading the rural areas' case are asking the cap be raised to a 35,000 resident limit and that the areas of under 10,000 residents that have had MSA areas encroach upon then not be penalized.

     In the past Congress has issued temporary measures to grandfather these communities into the rural housing programs, the last of which was issued in 2000 and expires October 1, 2012. The legislation to extend it passed the senate a few weeks ago, but it will not reach congress until well after the given expiration date. The federal rural housing service which is in charge of federal rural housing programs has stated that they will keep the current methods in place until March 27, 2013. This will give them time to develop a new method of tracking population and income changes. The US Census Bureau used what they referred to as the long firm questionnaire in 2000 which is what we are basing our tracking off of now and until March 2013. However, for the 2010 Census information a different method was used to gain information and the new method will be the basis for determining eligibility after March 27, 2013.

     In conclusion, these 900+ areas will remain rural in consideration for the next 6 months to come. However, after these next 6 months, the eligibility may change and, in the sense of the rural housing programs, the fate of these communities will then be determined.

Some information acquired from: Realtormag