How Do I Go About Finding Funding or Grants to Build Affordable Housing?

Computers provide instant access to housing grant information.

Getting affordable housing is a concern in urban areas, where members of poorer communities can have difficulty improving their living conditions. It's also a problem in rural areas, however, because those in rural areas don't have as many jobs or funds that support housing. Grants are available that enable organizations to build homes and rental properties in areas where the need for affordable housing is present, but you'll need to know how to find them.

Instructions

1. Identify your status. The eligibility for housing grants varies widely, with some being available only to nonprofits or state agencies. Others are available only to those who will build housing with certain accommodations, such as renewable energy systems or features for the disabled. Still others are available only to people within a certain region.

2. Identify the type of building grant you need. Some programs fund only the acquisition of property or certain portions of the building, such as roofing or plumbing. It is more than acceptable to see the project in parts in order to get the entire building covered, and, in fact, looking for smaller grants may increase your chances of getting an award.

3. Ask for a recommendation. Grant organizations publish calls for proposals, but unless you know the organization's website or the publication in which they place the call, you may not see the requests. The best places to ask around are shelters, hospitals, churches, libraries and similar community organizations that are familiar with housing needs and resources that publish grant proposal requests.

4. Contact the local office for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Department of Agriculture Rural Development, run by the Department of Agriculture. These two organizations fund the majority of housing programs in the United States. You can also visit the organizations' websites (hud.gov and rurdev.usda.gov).

5. Visit the federalgrantswire.com and grants.gov websites and search for housing grants. These websites list government grants from HUD and the Rural Development offices but also have grants not offered by these offices.

6. Contact the local housing commission. It may be able to tell you what private or government organizations in your area offer grants for housing. Often the grants available through the housing commission target issues specific to the area, such as housing for battered women, the disabled or the elderly.

Tips & Warnings

• Search for grants in the winter before the fiscal year begins. Otherwise, by the time you finish your proposal, you may contact grant offices only to discover that the first-come-first-serve funding has been distributed and that you're out of luck. If you draft a proposal and find that funding for a program has been suspended, simply tweak your proposal to suit a similar program.

References

• Federalgrantswire.com: Homepage
• USDA: Rural Development Office
• HUD: Homepage