August 14, 2025 – For customer awareness and transaction planning, Rural Development’s Office of Multifamily Housing’s Production and Preservation (P2) Division is announcing its 2025 calendar year-end closing schedule. Owners and applicants intending to close a transaction on or before December 31, 2025, must have fully executed conditional commitments / letters of conditions, and all outstanding information and documentation submitted to P2 on or before Friday, October 3, 2025. This includes having fully approved third-party reports, organizational document review, and construction documents. | Stakeholder Announcement
August 6, 2025 – The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Rural Development today announced that, on Oct. 1, 2025, it will begin using 7 CFR 1b to determine compliance with the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). | Stakeholder Announcement
August 6, 2025 – U.S. Department of Agriculture Rural Development's Rural Housing Service announces the availability of funding under the Fiscal Year 2025 Section 533 Housing Preservation Grant (HPG) Notice of Funding Opportunity was published in the Federal Register on Tuesday, August 5, 2025. The HPG program provides grants to qualified organizations to repair or rehabilitate homes, rental properties or co-ops occupied by low- and very-low-income residents in rural areas. Eligible applicants are organizations which include most State or local governmental entities, federally recognized Indian tribes, nonprofit, and faith-based organizations. | Stakeholder Announcement
July 15, 2025 – U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Rural Development Deputy Under Secretary Todd Lindsay today announced that USDA will be opening the first grant application window for Fiscal Year (FY) 2026 for the Rural Energy for America Program (REAP) on October 1, 2025. | Stakeholder Announcement
July 8, 2025 – U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Rural Development invites applications for grants to provide strong rural communities the leadership and technical know-how to keep growing. The funding is being made available through the Rural Community Development Initiative program for fiscal year 2025. | Stakeholder Announcement
June 26, 2025 - U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Rural Development has issued a final rule to adopt changes from the 2018 Farm Bill that apply to the BioPreferred® Program (formally known as the Biobased Markets Program). Changes include merging guidelines for Designating Biobased Products for Federal Procurement (FP) and the Voluntary Labeling Initiative for Biobased Products into one streamlined regulation. | Stakeholder Announcement
June 24, 2025 - The Rural Housing Service (RHS) Office of the Multifamily Housing (MFH) is announcing July 1, 2025, as the effective implementation date of the Housing Opportunity Through Modernization Act (HOTMA). To accommodate the required HOTMA changes, Rural Development (RD) published updates to Chapter 6 of Handbook 2-3560 on June 13, 2025. All MFH tenant certifications effective on or after July 1, 2025, must comply with HOTMA requirements. However, between July 1, 2025, and January 1, 2026, RD will not penalize MFH owners for HOTMA-related tenant file errors during supervisory reviews. | Stakeholder Announcement
April 2, 2025 - U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Rural Development has amended two program funding opportunities to remove harmful DEIA scoring criteria. The overhaul brings these programs into compliance with Executive Order 14151, Ending Radical And Wasteful Government DEI Programs And Preferencing, issued on January 20, 2025. | Stakeholder Announcement
Mar. 25, 2025 – U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Rural Development has amended fourteen program funding opportunities to remove harmful DEIA scoring criteria. The overhaul brings these programs into compliance with Executive Order 14151, Ending Radical And Wasteful Government DEI Programs And Preferencing, issued on January 20, 2025. | Stakeholder Announcement