Will a USDA Section 504 grant pay for plumbing repairs?

What it pays for

Section 504 covers plumbing repairs, broken pipes and leaks, and septic system repair and replacement, all as health and safety work. We do the plumbing. We don't do septic systems.

How much

USDA lists a grant of up to $10,000 and a loan of up to $40,000 at 1 percent fixed over 20 years. The two can be combined up to $50,000.

Who qualifies

Homeowners who live in the house, in a USDA eligible rural area, and who cannot get affordable credit elsewhere. The grant has extra conditions. You have to be 62 or older and have very low income for your county.

How the contractor gets paid

USDA pays the contractor after the final inspection. That means whoever does the work waits for the inspection before seeing the money, so agree the payment arrangement with your contractor before anything starts.

Where we fit

We have no tie to USDA and we don't apply on your behalf. Where the program lets you choose the contractor, we can do the walkthrough, trace the leak, and write up the repair with every part and its price, which is the kind of document an application can be built around. Then we can do the work.

Whether your address counts as rural is USDA's call. We work within 30 miles of Washington.

Before you apply

This was current as of October 2026. USDA Rural Development decides who qualifies and what it will pay for.

Where this comes from

We built this page from our October 2026 research on USDA Section 504 Home Repair Loans and Grants, run by USDA Rural Development.