The Receptivity to Housing Programs in the Rural South

Adequate and affordable housing continues to be a serious problem in many rural areas of the Southern United States. This problem has been exacerbated by several major events in the past two decades, including the population turnaround in the 1970s, which increased the demand for housing as the number of people living in rural areas increased. The housing affordability crisis then resulted from a spiraling rise in housing costs greater than household annual income and a reduction in federal spending for housing programs. The combined effect of these events suggests local communities must now look more to state level initiatives and to themselves to provide necessary funding and action to address housing needs. Seven hundred and eighty-six housing actors (governing officials, housing intermediaries, and housing leaders) from four communities in each of seven Southern states completed a mail survey (modified TDM) on their receptiveness towards existing housing programs and future housing initiatives. The results show that more traditional programs received greater support than those requiring new types of local funding or action. The results also suggest that more and better information transfer about housing programs could aid these housing actors in their evaluation of housing initiatives