USDA Office of Rural Development
4405 Bland Road, Suite 260
Raleigh, NC 27609
Phone: (919) 873-2000
Fax: (919) 837-2075
Website: www.rurdev.usda.gov
Contact: John Cooper, State Director
Type of Organization: Federal
Mission:
To help the citizens of rural North Carolina improve the quality of their lives by providing technical and financial services. USDA helps rural communities meet their basic needs by building water and wastewater systems; financing decent, affordable housing; supporting electric power and rural business, including cooperatives; and supporting community development with information and technical assistance.
Resources/Services:
Financial Assistance:
Housing Loans/Grants. Offers a wide range of loan and grant programs to provide rural residents with decent, safe and sanitary homes. Programs include Home Ownership Loans that provide assistance to low-income households to purchase, construct, repair or relocate a home; Home Improvement and Repair Loans and Grants that enable very low-income rural homeowners to remove health and safety hazards from their homes and to make homes accessible for people with disabilities; Rural Rental Housing Loans that finance construction of rental housing for low- and moderate-income individiuals and families and cooperative housing for elderly or disabled persons; and Rental Assistance that provides funds directly to the owners of Rural Development financed rental housing under contracts specifying that low-income tenants will pay no more than 30 percent of their income for rent.
Water and Waste Disposal Loans and Grants. Offers loans and grants for community water systems, sewage disposal systems, solid waste disposal systems, and storm drainage systems. Grants may be made to help the most financially needy communities reduce the rates and charges for users. Loans and grants are available in rural areas and towns with a population of 10,000 or less. Funds are available to public entities, such as muncipalities, counties, special-purpose districts, and Indian tribes. In addition, funds may be made available to corporations operated on a not-for-profit basis.
Community Facility Loans. Offers loans to build or improve essential public-use facilities in rural areas or towns of fewer than 20,000 people. Loans funds may be used to finance health care facilities such as hospitals, nursing homes, dental or medical clinics, and medical rehabilitation centers; public safety facilities such as fire stations and equipment, ambulances, police stations; and public service facilities such as courthouses, community buildings, and industrial parks and schools.
Business and Industry Program. Provides loan guarantees to further business and industrial development in areas outside the boundary of a city of 50,000 or more. Priority is given to applicants for projects in open county, rural communities and towns of 25,000 and smaller. The program provides guarantees to commercial lenders who make credit available to establish or maintain business in rural areas. Loan funds may be used to purchase land, buildings, and equipment, and provide working capital. Priorities are to save existing jobs and create new employment opportunties.
Intermediary Relending Program. Finances business facilities and community development projects in rural areas with populations of 25,000 or less. Loans are made from USDA Rural Development to intermediaries, who relend funds to ultimate recipients. Intermediaries establish revolving loan funds so that corrections from loans made to recipients in excess of necessary operating expenses and debt payments will be used for more loans to ultimate recipients. Intermediaries may be private nonprofit corporations, public agencies, Indian groups or cooperatives.
See web site for complete information.
Technical Assistance:
Cooperatives. This program helps rural residents form new cooperative businesses and improve the operations of existing cooperatives (user-owned businesses). Technical assistance is provided to cooperatives, cooperative related research is conducted, and information products are produced to promote public understanding of cooperatives.
Information:
Reports/Publications:
Annual Report. Copies available at no cost. Call to request.
Electronic/Computerized Services:
Economic and Rural Development Resource Links. The USDA Rural Development website links to a variety of online resources.
