Rural

“Drop dead” wasn’t an acceptable answer to urban decay in the 1970s. And it isn’t the right answer for struggling rural areas today.

The Community Reinvestment Act regulations should be recrafted to incentivize investments in underserved and economically distressed communities, many of which are rural.

Fifty-four years and 52,000 homes later, the future of the Self-Help Housing Program for low- and very-low income households is uncertain after it was eliminated in a budget proposal for next fiscal year.

With all the news of downward trends in rural America, this rural sociologist says he finally has something to smile about.

Agrarian Commons closely resemble community land trusts, but they are unique in that they work collectively to provide long-term affordable and equitable access of small and mid-sized farms.

In Montana, small family farms are disappearing at an alarming rate, and farmers and ranchers are unable to compete with giant agriculture mergers. But there are several ways to help improve the farmland accessibility issue.

A tribal college program works to preserve crucial Native American cultural elements while training indigenous women to step into leadership roles in their communities.

Residents who live in manufactured housing communities across the U.S. are under threat of skyrocketing property values, predatory investors, and limited financing options. Can resident-owned communities stem the tide?

In some ways, dealing with the opioid epidemic is a natural fit for community development groups. At the heart, it’s often a problem of poverty: a lack of jobs and opportunities. Here’s how CDCs are using their skills to address the crisis.

Much like urban communities, rural communities also face critical housing issues like rental shortages, a lack of federal and private funding to build new units, and the impending loss of affordability restrictions. Here’s what could help.

Rural communities are very different places—separated by climate, geography, and often race. But in many other ways, these communities are far more similar than different.

Shelterforce has had its comfort zones, and we’ve largely stayed within them. But it was time to shift our thinking so rural areas were more clearly part of the fold.