Joe Belden

6 Posts

Joe Belden is a writer and lecturer based in Washington, D.C. He was deputy executive director of the Housing Assistance Council.
A construction worker cuts a piece of wood in front of a house.
Housing

Leaky Roof? A USDA Home Repair Option

One USDA program has given out over a billion dollars in rural home repair grants since its inception, and could be inspiration for similar programs in urban and suburban communities as well.

Housing

A ‘Public Option’ for Low-Income Homeownership?

What the USDA could teach us about better federal homeownership policy.

Housing

Why Doesn’t Rural Housing Get Any Respect?

President Trump’s 2020 budget once again proposes to eliminate, or sharply cut, most rural housing efforts and some other USDA rural programs.

Housing

Rural Housing: An Election Day Post-Mortem

For those of us in the rural housing silo, the most significant November 4 result may be a fairly ho-hum and fully expected re-election in Eastern Kentucky. In the nation’s most rural Congressional district, House Appropriations Committee Chairman Hal Rogers (R-KY) ran against the same Democratic opponent he defeated in 2012 with 78 percent of […]

Housing

So Why Are Those Rural Housing Programs at USDA Anyway?

Housing folks often wonder why the U.S. Department of Agriculture has rural housing programs. The answer goes back to the New Deal and to efforts in the 1930s and 1940s […]

Policy

ARRA Adds Resources for Rural Mortgages and Persistent Poverty Counties

None of the ARRA money for rural housing is for rental, and the full influence of the stimulus on rural areas remains unclear.