Here is the lates development in the effort to keep Buckeye, AZ and the surrounding area designated rural. Following you will find a letter from Mayor Meck of Buckeye written to Congressman Raul Grijalva and Congressman Trent Franks.
Office of the Mayor
December 23, 2008
The Honorable Trent Franks and
7121 West Bell Road, Suite 200
Glendale, Arizona 85308
Dear Mr. Franks:
It is with great urgency that I write to ask for your assistance in ensuring that residents of Buckeye and other rural communities in Arizona's 2nd Congressional District do not lose their access to the rural housing loan programs of U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Rural Development in this period of unprecedented crisis in housing. Specifically, we seek your assistance in the Agriculture Appropriation or Banking Committee process to obtain an exemption for FY 2010 under USDA's "rural" definition of eligibility to continue federal affordable housing efforts in our town.
USDA's Rural Housing Programs benefit primarily very low and low income families in our community by providing funds for the construction, purchase, and repair of homes. This program has been a key tool in the provision of affordable housing in Buckeye for several years. These programs face cancellation due to Census figures which indicate that Buckeye may have exceeded the population limit under USDA's definition of "rural" in Section 520 of the Housing Act of 1949. Given that these Census estimates were compiled prior to the recent housing crisis and economic downturn, it would be inappropriate to deny residents of Buckeye access to these
essential affordable housing programs today.
On behalf of the residents of Buckeye, and particularly those families in need of affordable housing, I urge you to ensure that we be given an exception to USDA's "rural" eligibility reclassification. Please feel free to contact Jason Bayer on our staff at (623) 349-6155 or by email at jbayer@buckeyeaz.gov if we can provide you with any additional information on the need for these programs in our community.
Sincerely,
Jackie A. Meck, Mayor
Town of Buckeye
1101 E. Ash Ave. Buckeye, Arizona 85326 • (623) 349-6000 • FAX (623) 349-6099
Office of the Mayor
December 23, 2008
The Honorable Raúl M. Grijalva
1455 S. 4th Ave., Suite 4
Yuma, Arizona 85364
Dear Mr. Grijalva:
It is with great urgency that I write to ask for your assistance in ensuring that residents of Buckeye and other rural communities in Arizona's 7th Congressional District do not lose their access to the rural housing loan programs of U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Rural Development in this period of unprecedented crisis in housing. Specifically, we seek your assistance in the Agriculture Appropriation or Banking Committee process to obtain an exemption for FY 2010 under USDA's "rural" definition of eligibility to continue federal affordable housing efforts in our town.
USDA's Rural Housing Programs benefit primarily very low and low income families in our community by providing funds for the construction, purchase, and repair of homes. This program has been a key tool in the provision of affordable housing in Buckeye for several years. These programs face cancellation due to Census figures which indicate that Buckeye may have exceeded the population limit under USDA's definition of "rural" in Section 520 of the Housing Act of 1949. Given that these Census estimates were compiled prior to the recent housing crisis and economic downturn, it would be inappropriate to deny residents of Buckeye access to these
essential affordable housing programs today.
On behalf of the residents of Buckeye, and particularly those families in need of affordable housing, I urge you to ensure that we be given an exception to USDA's "rural" eligibility reclassification. Please feel free to contact Jason Bayer on our staff at (623) 349-6155 or by email at jbayer@buckeyeaz.gov if we can provide you with any additional information on the need for these programs in our community.
Sincerely,
Jackie A. Meck, Mayor
Town of Buckeye
1101 E. Ash Ave. Buckeye, Arizona 85326 • (623) 349-6000 • FAX (623) 349-6099
Tuesday, December 23, 2008
Friday, December 19, 2008
Here's an update on what has been gathered in the past few days. The first is an email from Ernie Wetherbee the State Housing Director for the Rural Development Program. The second is from Araceli Rodriequez a memer of Representative Grijalva's staff.
Dan,
USDA is currently reviewing the rural area designation as is required by our regulations. We are currently required to review every 5 years and every three years in high growth areas. As you know, Buckeye has exploded since the receipt of the 2000 census and is currently above 25,000 which is the maximum population under our guidelines.
Several communities have expressed concern over losing our services, but please understand that this is not an optional decision on our part it is a condition of our appropriation and the rural designation is something that is passed by congress.
I have had contact from Congressman Franks office and I understand that he is looking into this matter. I have asked that we be kept informed of any proposed plan that would provide us with the authority we need to exempt Buckeye from the population limit until at least the receipt of the 2010 census.
I would be happy to receive your comments, in fact they should go to our state director at:
eddie.browning@az.usda.gov
As it stands today, we are into at least February before a decision will be made.
I don't have the numbers readily available as to the exact amount of assistance that has gone into Buckeye this year fiscal year, (which began on Oct 1) but I would estimate that we have obligated approximately 15 million dollars in guaranteed loans during that time period.
Please contact me if you have any questions, or would like to discuss this matter further.
Ernie WetherbeeRH Program DirectorUSDA Rural Development230 N 1st Ave., Suite 206Phoenix, AZ 85003602-280-8764602-280-8726 Faxernie.wetherbee@az.usda.gov
Hi Dan,
Thanks for the information. After your phone call, I inquired with the USDA Rural Development Manager for this area, who provided me with a little more insight on the issue. In the case of Casa Grande, the city’s population had exceeded the 25,000 threshold by about 200 people. In addition, the City of Casa Grande itself, and not a non-profit organization like in most cases, is a grantee of self-help program funds. Thus, the city was able to argue to USDA Rural Development that the families on their waiting list would not be able to build their homes if the designation was lost and thus made the request on those grounds.
On the other hand, Havasu City and Kingman also asked USDA if they could keep the rural designation when they exceeded the threshold a couple years ago, but the cities’ population had exceeded the 25,000 limit by over 20,000 people and they their requests were denied. As the email below states, the population figures for the Buckeye area are unknown to me as well, but if the population has grown tremendously, it may be the case that the request is denied. In addition, no USDA Rural Development grantee operates in this area. The only assistance available to Buckeye and the area is the guaranteed loan program.
I have already forwarded your request to our D.C. office and will make sure to contact you when I have more information.
Best,
Araceli Rodríguez
Community Representative (serving Yuma and La Paz Counties)
Congressman Raúl M. Grijalva, AZ07
928.343.7933
928.581.3402 (cell)
http://grijalva.house.gov
Dan,
USDA is currently reviewing the rural area designation as is required by our regulations. We are currently required to review every 5 years and every three years in high growth areas. As you know, Buckeye has exploded since the receipt of the 2000 census and is currently above 25,000 which is the maximum population under our guidelines.
Several communities have expressed concern over losing our services, but please understand that this is not an optional decision on our part it is a condition of our appropriation and the rural designation is something that is passed by congress.
I have had contact from Congressman Franks office and I understand that he is looking into this matter. I have asked that we be kept informed of any proposed plan that would provide us with the authority we need to exempt Buckeye from the population limit until at least the receipt of the 2010 census.
I would be happy to receive your comments, in fact they should go to our state director at:
eddie.browning@az.usda.gov
As it stands today, we are into at least February before a decision will be made.
I don't have the numbers readily available as to the exact amount of assistance that has gone into Buckeye this year fiscal year, (which began on Oct 1) but I would estimate that we have obligated approximately 15 million dollars in guaranteed loans during that time period.
Please contact me if you have any questions, or would like to discuss this matter further.
Ernie WetherbeeRH Program DirectorUSDA Rural Development230 N 1st Ave., Suite 206Phoenix, AZ 85003602-280-8764602-280-8726 Faxernie.wetherbee@az.usda.gov
Hi Dan,
Thanks for the information. After your phone call, I inquired with the USDA Rural Development Manager for this area, who provided me with a little more insight on the issue. In the case of Casa Grande, the city’s population had exceeded the 25,000 threshold by about 200 people. In addition, the City of Casa Grande itself, and not a non-profit organization like in most cases, is a grantee of self-help program funds. Thus, the city was able to argue to USDA Rural Development that the families on their waiting list would not be able to build their homes if the designation was lost and thus made the request on those grounds.
On the other hand, Havasu City and Kingman also asked USDA if they could keep the rural designation when they exceeded the threshold a couple years ago, but the cities’ population had exceeded the 25,000 limit by over 20,000 people and they their requests were denied. As the email below states, the population figures for the Buckeye area are unknown to me as well, but if the population has grown tremendously, it may be the case that the request is denied. In addition, no USDA Rural Development grantee operates in this area. The only assistance available to Buckeye and the area is the guaranteed loan program.
I have already forwarded your request to our D.C. office and will make sure to contact you when I have more information.
Best,
Araceli Rodríguez
Community Representative (serving Yuma and La Paz Counties)
Congressman Raúl M. Grijalva, AZ07
928.343.7933
928.581.3402 (cell)
http://grijalva.house.gov
Saturday, December 13, 2008
We Are Losing Millions of USDA Dollars for the West Valley Area
The USDA Rural Development Program offers assistance to communities and counties in rural areas. This is done by done in a variety of ways some of which are :
- Affordable Housing programs
- 100% financed USDA Guaranteed Mortgages
- Educational Programs
- Many other projects. (See the USDA website for more information.)
Currently much of the western part of Goodyear, all of Waddell, Verado and Buckeye are considered rural "in nature" and are eligible for USDA Rural Development funds and programs. This is scheduled to end the beginning of 2009 even though much of the area remains rural in nature despite the increase in population.
The purpose of this blog site is to gather community and county leaders from the areas involved to prevent the loss of the USDA Rural Development eligibility for this West Valley Area. If the area is realigned and taken out of its rural designation millions of dollars would be lost from the already economically stressed area. (Proposed new ineligible area)
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