Heather Colley’s story is one that resonates across much of rural America. Over five years, Colley and her two children moved four times, each move spurred by the relentless climb of rents in eastern Tennessee. Like many families in rural communities, Colley faced a seemingly insurmountable barrier to homeownership—until a family gift in 2021 handed her a small plot of land. Even then, the dream of building a house seemed out of reach for the single mother and manicurist earning $18.50 an hour. That changed when she qualified for a $272,000 grant from a nonprofit, made possible by the HOME Investment Partnerships Program. Last June, Colley moved into her new three-bedroom home. “Every time I pull into my garage, I pinch myself,” she told the Associated Press.
But the program that made Colley’s home possible now faces an uncertain future. President Donald Trump has proposed eliminating the HOME Investment Partnerships Program—a federal initiative that, for decades, has played a vital role in making affordable housing a reality for rural Americans. The House Republicans’ current budget proposal omits funding for HOME entirely, instead suggesting nearly $5 billion be drawn from a related pandemic-era fund. Yet, those funds may be far less than expected, as many projects haven’t been logged into the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s system, according to state agencies and housing associations. Meanwhile, Senate Republicans have included HOME funding in their draft budget, setting the stage for a political showdown that could determine the fate of affordable housing in countless communities.
Since its inception under President George H. W. Bush in the 1990s, the HOME program has spent more than $38 billion nationwide, helping to build or repair over 1.3 million affordable homes. At least 540,000 of those homes were in rural or significantly rural congressional districts, according to an analysis by the Associated Press. Strikingly, 84% of those homes were located in districts that voted for Trump in the 2024 election. “Maybe they don’t realize how far-reaching these programs are,” Colley reflected, noting with some irony that she herself voted for Trump in 2024. “I understand we don’t want excessive spending and wasting taxpayer dollars, but these proposed budget cuts across the board make me rethink the next time I go to the polls.”
HOME has long served as a lifeline for rural housing developers, especially in places where private investment is scarce and federal aid is limited. In Owsley County, Kentucky—one of the nation’s poorest regions, battered by the decline of coal mining and tobacco farming—HOME has been essential for more than a dozen years. Cassie Hudson, who leads Partnership Housing in Owsley, said the program has funded the majority of their affordable homes. But with stagnant funding and rising construction costs, Hudson’s organization now builds just a quarter of the single-family homes it once did.
“Particularly for deeply rural places and persistent poverty counties, local housing developers are the only way homes and new rental housing gets built,” Joshua Stewart of Fahe, a coalition of Appalachian nonprofits, told the Associated Press. HOME often bridges the gap when construction costs exceed what a home can be sold for—a common hurdle in Appalachia and other poor regions. Without it, Stewart warned, nonprofits’ ability to build affordable homes would be severely eroded in the years ahead.
The impact of HOME is not just theoretical; it’s deeply personal for families like Tiffany Mullins’s. Mullins, a single mother of four earning $14.30 an hour at Walmart, was able to purchase a home in Hazard, Kentucky, thanks to HOME funding. She moved in August. For Mullins, the program helps preserve a rural way of life she remembers fondly: “We had gardens, we had chickens, cows. Now you don’t see much of that.”
The effects of funding cuts are felt for years—sometimes decades. Tess Hembree, executive director of the Council of State Community Development Agencies, explained that when HOME funding was temporarily reduced to $900 million in 2015, the consequences lingered. “10 to 15 years later, we’re seeing the ramifications,” she said, noting that the slowdown in affordable housing construction wasn’t limited to rural areas but extended to cities as well.
HOME funding is also critical to the success of the Low Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) program, the nation’s largest source of affordable rental housing. According to soon-to-be-published research by the Urban Institute, HOME grants contribute to 12% of LIHTC-funded units, totaling 324,000 homes. Trump’s recent spending bill did increase LIHTC funding, but experts caution that further cuts to HOME would undermine the effectiveness of those credits. “It’s LIHTC plus HOME, usually,” said Tim Thrasher, CEO of Community Action Partnership of North Alabama, which builds affordable apartments for some of the country’s poorest residents.
Organizations like the Woodlands Development Group in eastern West Virginia depend on HOME for smaller rural projects. Executive director Dave Clark explained that HOME is “one of the only programs available to us that allows us to develop true workforce housing”—homes for nurses, first responders, and teachers who are the backbone of rural communities. In east Tennessee, Creative Compassion uses HOME funding to help similar workers. But with the program’s future in doubt, grant administrator Sarah Halcott voiced concern for her clients: “This is just another nail in the coffin for rural areas.”
While the struggle for affordable housing intensifies, rural America faces another crisis—this one on the farm. The US National Corn Growers Association (NCGA) recently sounded the alarm about what it calls “the economic crisis hitting rural America.” Corn prices have plunged more than 50% from their 2022 peak, while the cost of inputs—seeds, fertilizer, fuel—has barely budged, declining just 3%. That imbalance, the NCGA said, translates into a staggering 85% loss per bushel for corn growers, with an even tougher year expected ahead. The group has urged Congress and the Trump administration to boost demand through higher ethanol blends and expanded access to foreign markets.
Soybean farmers are in a similarly precarious position. The American Soybean Association (ASA) recently warned of a “trade and financial precipice” for U.S. growers, as soybean prices have dropped about 40% since 2022. With China—the largest buyer of U.S. soybeans—yet to make purchases for the coming months, growers are under “extreme financial stress.” The ASA has called on President Trump and Congress to prioritize soybeans in trade talks with China, seeking major purchase commitments and the removal of Beijing’s tariffs. “Historically, the U.S. was the provider of choice for Chinese customers,” the ASA wrote. “However, due to ongoing tariff retaliation, our longstanding customers in China have and will continue to turn to our competitors in South America.”
For rural America, the convergence of a housing crunch and a farm economy in distress paints a sobering picture. As lawmakers wrangle over budgets and trade deals, families like Heather Colley’s and Tiffany Mullins’s wait anxiously, hoping that the programs and policies that have long sustained their communities won’t vanish just when they’re needed most.
