A new Housing and Urban Development (HUD) funding package was released this week, worth $322 million. over $54 million of that is set aside to address homelessness in rural areas, a first of its kind move to acknowledge and address housing insecurity in rural communities.
“We have a responsibility to ensure that people sleeping in their vehicles, in tents, or on the streets, including in rural areas, have access to decent, stable housing and services, like health care and treatment, to live with dignity and safety,” said Department of Housing and Urban Development Secretary Marcia L. Fudge in a HUD press release.
While people experiencing homelessness in rural areas share some of the causal factors with all people with this struggle, there are unique aspects of rural life which exacerbate homelessness and housing insecurity for people in rural areas. In some rural areas, rates of homelessness exceed those in urban and suburban areas.
In addition to the causal factors of homelessness among all people who experience it, additional economic, social, and geographic factors unique to rural areas exacerbate homelessness among the residents of rural communities.
This new approach to allocating funding to rural areas is long-overdue. The process for applying for HUD funding for homelessness programs is designed in a way that can be challenging for rural communities to engage, while the dearth of services for people experiencing homelessness – like assistance applying for assistance, mental and physical health services, and workforce development services – make it hard for individuals to change their own circumstances.
While the hidden crisis of rural homelessness is nothing new, it has been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic which led to job loss for millions, the exhaustion of the social safety net, and pressure on all the factors of well-being that interconnect with housing stability. This new HUD package is a powerful first step on a better path.
