The Rural Housing and Economic Development Gateway trained more than 200 local housing practitioners in March at sessions addressing HUD grants and regional solutions for colonies communities on the U.S.-Mexico border. The Gateway is a program of HUD’s Office of Rural Housing and Economic Development and is administered by HAC. More than 50 housing specialists attended a Gateway training in rural Nogales, Ariz. on Rural Housing, Economic Development, and Infrastructure Development in the Colonies. Trainers from the Housing Assistance Council, the Rural Community Assistance Partnership, and the National Congress for Community Economic Development went to Nogales to share insight on national programs that may be of help to the people in the rural border communities. Attendees participated in a uniquely tailored combination of comprehensive sessions aimed at building organizational capacity and exchanging ideas on regional solutions. The Gateway program will conduct three more specialized regional pieces of training in 2005. The second Gateway training in March was conducted via conference call and webcast. This year for the first time organizations are required to submit applications for most HUD funding online, so the Rural Gateway session walked local practitioners through the new online application process. Demand for the training was overwhelming, with 55 local practitioners on the phone lines and 90 on the webcast. The Gateway will conduct more conference calls on a variety of topics throughout 2005. Perhaps as a result, housing for low-income people compares favorably in public opinion compared to other types of economic development. In a recent national poll of adults conducted for Smart Growth America and The Realtors, for example, low income housing ranked above shopping and employment and even above housing for moderate- or high-income people “as the type of development that communities lacked.” When asked about the development priorities in their state, most replied that housing for people with low and moderate incomes should be a high or extremely high priority, more than favored redeveloping cities or older suburbs, new suburban development, or even limiting the development of open space.