USDA's Section 502 Single Family Direct Loan Program provides subsidized housing loans to very low- and low-income rural residents who are without adequate housing and cannot obtain credit from other sources. An ERS survey of recent Section 502 borrowers finds that they are typically under 40, in families with children, and first-time homebuyers. Most of them believed that their current home and neighborhood are better than their previous ones and that, without assistance from the program, they would not have been able to afford a comparable home for at least 2 years, if ever.