Posted on 08/31/2025 11:49:44 AM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum
Heather Colley and her two children moved four times over five years as they fled high rents in eastern Tennessee, which, like much of rural America, hasn’t been spared from soaring housing costs.
A family gift in 2021 of a small plot of land offered a shot at homeownership, but building a house was beyond reach for the 45-year-old single mother and manicurist making $18.50 an hour.
That changed when she qualified for $272,000 from a nonprofit to build a three-bedroom home because of a grant program that has helped make affordable housing possible in rural areas for decades. She moved in last June.
“Every time I pull into my garage, I pinch myself,” Colley said.
Now, President Donald Trump wants to eliminate that grant, the HOME Investment Partnerships Program, and House Republicans overseeing federal budget negotiations did not include funding for it in their budget proposal. Experts and state housing agencies say that would set back tens of thousands of future affordable housing developments nationwide, particularly hurting Appalachian towns and rural counties where government aid is sparse and investors are few.
The program has helped build or repair more than 1.3 million affordable homes in the last three decades, of which at least 540,000 were in congressional districts that are rural or significantly rural, according to an Associated Press analysis of federal data.
“Maybe they don’t realize how far-reaching these programs are,” said Colley, who voted for Trump in 2024. Among those half a million homes that HOME helped build, 84% were in districts that voted for him last year, the AP analysis found.
“I understand we don’t want excessive spending and wasting taxpayer dollars,” Colley said, “but these proposed...”
(Excerpt) Read more at apnews.com ...
“That changed when \\she qualified\\ for $272,000 from a nonprofit to build a three-bedroom home...”
Government picking winners and losers.
A family gift in 2021 of a small plot of land offered a shot at homeownership, but building a house was beyond reach for the 45-year-old single mother and manicurist making $18.50 an hour …Oh boy. So $18.50/hour is today’s $7/hour. Don’t need hundreds of thousands to put a mobile home on a plot of land either. And where is the father of these two kids?
Somehow, I’ll bet that the AP ‘journ-O-lists’ perhaps forgot to mention that the program was probably cancelled because the number of fraudulent recipients far exceeded the honest ones. Any bets? Oh, forgot, those ‘journ-O-lists’ might have had to do some research (look it up, journ-O-lists), and perhaps (shudder) be able to do some fifth grade math.
Remove 50 million illegals & there will be PLENTY of cheap housing.
Several times in my life I rented a room in a house. I could not afford to rent a studio or one bedroom apartment. Eventually, I could afford it. I never had a thought about “asking for help” from the government.
A non profit IE tax dollars at work
Here's my offer lady: a cardboard box.
“A family gift in 2021 of a small plot of land offered a shot at homeownership, but building a house was beyond reach for the 45-year-old single mother and manicurist making $18.50 an hour.”
How about a nice used trailer home till you save enough to build?
“Heck, she was given the land. A used single-wide could easily be had for five thousand dollars.”
Ding, ding, ding!
Maybe she can find a way to buy a used singlewide trailer. She has the land. the main expense is getting utilities I imagine.
The program has spent more than $38 billion nationwide since it began filling in funding gaps and attracting more investment to acquire, build and repair affordable homes, HUD data shows. Additional funding has gone toward projects that have yet to be finished and rental assistance.
That’s right. As Thomas Sowell often points out, there will always be poverty, but there is nothing that says a given person will be in poverty forever. It is often a stage people pass through, but it has never been intended that one stay poverty-stricken forever.
I am offended that my tax dollars are being used so someone ELSE can buy a house. WTF is that?
The financials are hard to read but it looks like in three sections they pay about as much in salaries as they do in benefits. No surprise. I could be wrong but I’ll bet not by much.
My neighbor just bought a clean single wide for his daughter for $6k and spent $3K to move it and set it up. This woman in the story hit the jackpot at taxpayer expense. Great deal for her. It is what liberals are all about. Distributing money that isn’t theirs.
A quarter-million lottery payout from the government.
We really need to stop this. The one thing that would simultaneously bring up low-skill wages and down the cost of housing is mass deportation of illegals (not just “bad hombres”)!
Anything coming from AP should be discarded because it is either spun beyond reality or outright BS.
Absolutely
The Benefits will Be Huge!
Why the hell does this woman get almost $300,000 from the federal government? How about 300,000 for each of my children? What, is she a reliable Democrat voter?
What you said.
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