The nation is not keeping pace with repairing and replacing more than 400,000 affordable rental units that serve low-income rural residents. Without action, a cascade of rentals will age out of the program, creating a housing gap that could contribute to rural population loss, according to the Housing Assistance Council. […]
Read More
Congress has ignored requests from the Trump administration to zero out rural housing programs. But merely protecting current funding will not address rural housing needs adequately, advocates say. Building stronger rural communities requires creating new housing initiatives, not just preserving the housing stock that is already in place, says the head […]
Read More
Siblings Hannah and Hilary Heishman were born and raised in Moorefield, a town of some 2,500 in West Virginia’s eastern panhandle. Hannah and her husband, Kris Jenkins, have built a life for themselves in Moorefield. They’re both veterans and volunteer for all manner of vet-related activities throughout Hardy County – […]
Read More
Rural schools are less likely to participate in district-wide free lunch and breakfast programs despite the fact that rural families typically have more economic need for the nutrition program, according to a recent analysis from U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Economic Research Service. The study of the USDA Community Eligibility Program found that […]
Read More
For years, Wendy Gooditis tried to help her older brother Brian access medical care. When he was just 11 years old, he suffered a horrific trauma at the hands of someone outside their family, which resulted in post traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD. Brian’s condition was undiagnosed for much of […]
Read More
Heightened generational and cultural divides are increasingly apparent throughout Appalachia as rural students navigate the path to higher education. College has shifted from presenting a lure of opportunity to one of uncertainty and risk. To tell community members in a small Appalachian town to pull themselves up by their bootstraps […]
Read More