Affordable housing and neighborhood revitalization aren?t just urban issues As cities continue to boom and economic activity becomes more and more concentrated, rural renewal becomes an even more pressing problem.
A much-discussed Wall Street Journal article from last week, ?Rural America Is The New ?Inner City?? put the crisis of economic anxiety and drug abuse front and center in the national conversation about small towns and country communities.
This part of the country has gone from ?breadbasket to basket case,? according to the story, complete with a deep demographic dive that shows a declining population and disappearing economic activity.
Current stats from the National Rural Housing Coalition also paint a grim picture. Rural development funding has been cut by 75 percent over the last 40 years, and the poverty rate in rural areas?home to 46 million Americans?is 17.7 percent, triple that of urban areas. The structural shifts that have upended the rural economy make the numerous community-development programs and affordable-housing organizations on the front lines that much more important for buoying and building rural communities. Here are some of the organizations working to fix and fortify these communities, as recommended by experts from the National Rural Housing Coalition.

Coastal Enterprises (Brunswick, Maine)
While ?tech-savvy? investors may turn to software and Silicon Valley, this longtime regional-development organization places big bets on the c...