Rural Housing Amendments of 1979

(Measure indefinitely postponed in Senate, provisions inserted in H.R. 3875 as passed House)

Rural Housing Amendments of 1979 - Extends specified farm housing programs of the Farmers Home Administration under the Housing Act of 1949. Authorizes appropriations for fiscal year 1980 for: (1) loans and grants for repairs or improvements of rural dwellings and financial assistance to provide low-rent housing for domestic farm labor; (2) loans and grants for mutual and self-help housing programs in rural areas and small towns; (3) the Self-Help Housing Land Development Fund; and (4) grants for the development of technical and supervisory assistance programs in rural areas with Federal, State, and local housing programs for low-income families. Extends the authority of the Secretary of Agriculture to insure loans which provide rental and cooperative housing for the elderly or others of low-and moderate-incomes and to insure and make loans using the Rural Housing Insurance Fund for housing and buildings on farms owned by low-or moderate-income families.

Repeals the requirement that in order for the Secretary of Agriculture to extend financial assistance through the Farmers Home Administration to specified owners of farms or real estate in rural areas for refinancing indebtedness such indebtedness must be incurred at least five years prior to the application for assistance.

Requires the Secretary to allocate assistance for housing to households that have incomes below the national median income or, in a State with high prevailing incomes, below the State median income. Sets forth a formula for determining the percentage of households to be assisted in each fiscal year.

Makes provisions for the payment by the Secretary out of the Rural Housing Insurance Fund for the correction of, or compensation to homeowners for, significant construction defects in certain newly constructed assisted homes.

Includes among the administrative powers of the Secretary the authority to repair and rehabilitate property pledged or mortgaged under the Housing Act of 1949 and purchased by the Secretary at any foreclosure. Sets forth restrictions on the sale or disposition of such property.

Allows the Secretary to provide up to 90 percent of the development costs of housing for migrant farmworkers while they are away from their residence.

Requires assurances from future recipients of loans under the farm labor and rural rental housing programs of the Housing Act of 1949 that rural housing projects which are refinanced or prepaid will continue to be used for their original purposes for a period of 15 years and that no person occupying the housing shall be required to vacate within such 15 year period because of such a transaction.

Expands the authority of the Secretary to contract for services facilitating public and private nonprofit entities in providing technical supervisory assistance to low-income individuals who are participating in mutual self-help housing in rural areas and small towns.

Authorizes the Secretary to make and insure loans for up to 100 percent of the units in multifamily rental or cooperative housing projects and related facilities for domestic farm labor, the elderly, and persons and families of low income in rural areas.

Authorizes the Secretary to waive the requirement that rural communities eligible for urban development action grants or other Federal programs for distressed areas must not be located within a standard metropolitan statistical area in order to receive housing loans if such communities demonstrate a rural character, a need for low-income housing, a lack of mortgage credit, and a lack of sufficient funding from other Federal housing programs.

Increases the assistance which one individual may receive under the Housing Act of 1949 for the repair and improvement of a rural dwelling to $5,000 in the case of a grant, and $7,500 in the case of a combined loan and grant.