Hundreds of Latinos in rural Iowa will be aid to buy home


LATINOS USA

4:21 pm Sept. 27, 2016


The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced today a project of aid that will allow some 2,800 residents Latino families
in rural Iowa buy homes over the next decade. EFE / FILE

Denver (CO), 27 Sep (EFEUSA . ) - The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced today a project of aid that will allow some 2,800 residents Latino families in rural Iowa buy homes over the next decade. This program is an expansion of a federal project that seeks to reduce the "opportunity gap" separating Latinos in the rest of the population in that state.

With this initiative, USDA wants to respond to the rapid growth of the Latino population in Iowa, which doubled over the past 15 years, reaching the 170,000 current residents, and that is projected to triple over the next three decades, reaching in 450,000 people.

As part of the implementation of the new initiative, this year was awarded to the credit union Community 1st Credit Union, based in Ottumwa, the "Together We advance" certification to provide financial services to the Hispanic community, including mortgages.

That cooperative now work in 14 small towns and if the goals established in each community could help up to 200 families, mostly Mexicans, to buy your home for the next 10 years are reached.

In addition to mortgage loans, the cooperative will also offer financial education programs in Spanish for Latinos in rural communities in Iowa.

"With such a large increase in our Latino population, an important priority for USDA Rural Development continues to be our commitment to affordable housing for all Americans in rural areas," he said in remarks prepared Bill Menner, director of the Office of Rural Development USDA in Iowa.

"Being a home owner provides a solid foundation that helps people build family wealth and climb the ladder of economic opportunity," he added.

However, according to a report of 2013 of the journalistic organization focused on community issues IowaWatch, Latinos and African Americans in Iowa lack precisely these economic opportunities due, among other factors, to institutional racism, negative stereotypes against minorities, cultural and language barriers and little support from the state authorities.

The report notes that while 75% of whites own their homes, less than half of Latinos own their home, a significant decrease from 1970, when 60% of Hispanics in Iowa owned.

The new project, based on a pilot project in Texas in 2005, promotes collaboration of federal and state agencies with entrepreneurs and local organizations "to support Latino families and other immigrants who move to rural Iowa", ie, areas with communities of fewer than 20,000 residents.

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