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As quoted in the Federal Register (Vol. 65, No. 32):
"The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development's (HUD) Rural Housing and Economic Development (RHED) Program was created in 1999 to build capacity at the State and local levels for rural housing and economic development and to support innovative housing and economic development activities in rural areas. In the first year of the program, HUD received 749 applications and awarded 91 grants, totaling approximately $27 million. For FY2000, HUD received 643 applications and awarded 103 grants, totaling approximately $24.75 million.
One of those grants was for the FUTURO Communities Regional Business Service Center whose goals and objectives you can read about here. The RHED program identifies that "there is a great need for expanding the supply of housing in rural America, particularly affordable housing for low income families and individuals. There are a number of rural areas which have experienced rapid in-migration as a result of a growth in employment opportunities, but which have a shortage of affordable housing. In addition, because of out-migration from rural areas, and other factors causing economic dislocation, many rural areas suffer from sever economic distress. There has been a growing national recognition of the need to enhance the capacity of local and State governments, Indian tribes, local rural non-profits [like FUTURO], and CDCs [Community Development Corporations] to expand the supply of affordable housing and to engage in economic development activities in the rural areas."
A number of resources are available from the Federal government to address these problems, and the RHED was developed to supplement those resources and to focus specifically on capacity building and innovative approaches to both housing and economic development in rural areas. To pursue this goal, FUTURO applied for and won funding to create a Regional Business Service Center to serve the needs of small businesses in its region, to increase their capacity to remain profitable and productive, to retain employees and create new positions, and to increase the economic base of historically impoverished communities (historically meaning, in most cases, to that time after the market collapsed from under the domestic oil producing business in Southwest Texas).
 <- Download a copy of the original RHED initiative in PDF format.
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