U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) South Dakota Acting State Director Bruce Jones today announced the availability of USDA loan and grant funding for South Dakotans who want to repair or rehabilitate a mobile or manufactured home.
“In many places in rural Tribal areas there is a high percentage of manufactured homes that are in need of repairs. Finding funds to assist with the needed rehabilitation for these homes is difficult. USDA has the Section 504 Home Repair program that will assist these families in need. USDA housing programs provide ways in which we can help support low and very-low income homeowners whose homes are in need of repair or rehab to bring them up-to-standard for health and safety standards,” said Jones.
The USDA Rural Development Section 504 Home Repair Program for a two-person household income of $24,800 offers a 20-year term loans of up to $20,000 and a 1% interest rate to very-low-income residents to help them make critical repairs to their owner-occupied homes. Qualifying seniors without repayment over the age of 62 may also be eligible for up to $7,500 in grant funds.
A number of factors are considered when determining an applicant’s eligibility for USDA housing assistance. To qualify for the home repair program, must own home, site and occupy prior to application, must remove self and safety hazards, and the home must be on permanent foundation which can be either full below grade foundation or blocks, piers, or some other type of foundation with skirting, anchoring, and tie downs.
“In the past couple of months Sisseton-Wahpeton Oyate (SWO) leadership has requested Sisseton Wahpeton Housing Authority (SWHA) to research opportunities for the Elders to have a resource to rehab their individual homes. With this type of grant and loan opportunity, this will provide the funding for the needed rehab projects. SWHA has met with USDA-RD and SWO two Elderly programs to help inform the Elders of this funding resource, along with assisting the Elders with their application. This another great example of working together.” said JC Crawford, Director of the Sisseton Wahpeton Housing Authority.
For further information on USDA housing programs, please contact one of the following Housing Specialists:
Aberdeen Area Office - Roxanne Woodring, roxanne.woodring@sd.usda.gov, or 605-226-3360, Ext. 4, servicing Beadle, Brown, Campbell, Day, Edmunds, Faulk, Marshall, McPherson, Roberts, Spink, and Walworth.
USDA Rural Development in South Dakota has offices in Aberdeen, Huron, Mitchell, Pierre, Rapid City, Sioux Falls, Watertown, and Yankton. For more information, visit the USDA Rural Development Website at http://www.rd.usda.gov/sd.
Since 2009, USDA Rural Development (@USDARD) has invested nearly $13 billion to start or expand nearly 112,000 rural businesses; and invested $38.2 billion in 1,057 electric projects that have financed more than 198,000 miles of transmission and distribution lines serving 4.6 million rural residents. USDA also helped 1.1 million rural residents buy homes; funded nearly 9,200 community facilities such as schools, public safety and health care facilities; and helped bring high-speed Internet access to nearly 6 million rural residents and businesses. For more information, visit www.usda.gov/results. To read more about USDA’s investments in rural America and its successful turnaround, visit USDA's entry on Medium.com, Rural America Is Back in Business.