The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Rural Development is seeking pre-applications for loans and grants to increase the supply of affordable housing for farmworkers.
Funding provided through USDA's Farm Labor Housing Program may be used to construct off-farm housing for domestic year-round and migrant or seasonal farm laborers, retired domestic farm laborers, and disabled domestic farm laborers.
The maximum award amount per project is $5 million. These loans and grants are awarded on a competitive basis.
Farmers, associations of farmers, family farm cooperatives, associations of farmworkers and nonprofits, most state and local government entities, and federally-recognized tribes are eligible to apply.
Pre-applications must be submitted electronically to USDA's Multi-Family Housing Programs at MFHprocessing1@usda.gov. There will be three rounds of pre-application selections. Pre-applications must be submitted by 9:00 pm PST on the deadline for that round:
- April 1, 2021 (Round 1)
- November 1, 2021 (Round 2)
- November 1, 2022 (Round 3)
Selected applicants will be invited to submit final applications by 9:00 pm PST on the following dates:
- August 2, 2021 (Round 1)
- May 2, 2022 (Round 2)
- May 1, 2023 (Round 3)
USDA is issuing this notice now, subject to the availability of funds, in order to allow applicants enough time to leverage financing, prepare and submit their applications, and to give Rural Development time to process the applications.
For additional information, see page 7840 of the Feb. 2, 2021, Federal Register. For questions, contact Jonathan Bell, Branch Chief for the Multi-Family Housing Processing and Report Review Branch 1, (254) 742-9764.