§1479 General Powers of Secretary

Summary

The Secretary must set and approve safe, decent farm housing standards for different farms and places, taking into account family needs, the type of farming, and land size and income. A house meets the rules if it is built to the Secretary’s minimum standards, HUD’s minimum property standards for Title II mortgages, voluntary national model building codes, or the manufactured housing rules in section 1472(e). The Secretary must promote energy-saving features in new homes and try to match certain national energy rules. The Secretary can require loan or grant recipients to promise they will not make lease or occupancy terms worse for farm residents because of repairs or improvements without approval. After October 1, 1977, the Secretary may pay to fix structural defects, pay owners’ claims, or buy properties for units built in the period starting 18 months before October 12, 1977 and bought with this program, if the owner asks within 36 months after getting help (or, for units helped within 18 months before October 12, 1977, within 36 months after October 12, 1977). Those payments can come from the Rural Housing Insurance Fund, and the Secretary’s decisions about them cannot be reviewed in court. If a loan secured by tribal allotted or trust land goes into default, the Secretary must first offer the account to an eligible tribal member, the tribe, or the Indian housing authority, and if the Secretary later sells the property it may only be sold to one of those entities. The Secretary must write rules for how these powers are carried out. Each year the Secretary must name 100 counties or communities as “targeted underserved areas” that have much less per-person program help over the prior 5 years and meet both of these tests: at least 20% of the population is at or below the poverty level, and at least 10% live in substandard housing. Projects in places with 28% or more poverty and 13% or more substandard housing get extra preference. The Secretary must publicize available loans and grants for these areas, review designations after the 1990 census and report to Congress within 9 months of that data, and publish the annual list in the Federal Register. Five percent of the program’s lending authority each fiscal year must be set aside for targeted underserved areas. Unused set-aside money may be reallocated to eligible colonias or to eligible counties and communities that were not designated, and any still-unused funds will be handled under the regular program rules. Colonias are eligible for the set-aside and may get priority under certain state conditions, but priority for any one State ends after 5% of that State’s annual assistance goes to colonias. The Secretary may make grants to help prepare loan applications (to nonprofits, community housing groups, States, or local governments), limited to customary preparation costs; applications must be approved or denied in writing within 60 days, and those grant funds stay available until spent. A “colonia” means a community in Arizona, California, New Mexico, or Texas within 150 miles of the U.S.–Mexico border (excluding large metro areas over 1,000,000 people) that existed as a colonia before November 28, 1990 and that lacks potable water, adequate sewage, or decent, safe, sanitary housing.