Location: San Luis, Yuma County, Arizona

Problem: The nation’s affordable housing crisis reduces low-income families’ homeownership opportunities in San Luis

Solution: Rural Community Assistance Corporation’s (RCAC) Loan Fund participates in a loan to Comite De Bien Estar to develop 138-lots for a U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Section 523 Mutual Self-Help Housing Program subdivision

Comite De Bien Estar, a nonprofit organization that serves a predominately Latino customer base, develops affordable housing through the USDA self-help program. The organization is currently developing a 138-lot subdivision in San Luis, Yuma County, Arizona, which will be constructed using the self-help program. Low-income borrowers work together under the guidance of a nonprofit public housing entity (self-help grantee) to build each other’s homes. With a construction supervisor on site, these building groups perform at least 65 percent of the construction work required (known as “sweat equity”) in exchange for an affordable mortgage.

San Luis is located in southwest Arizona, bordered by the Colorado River on the west and the Mexican border on the south. In San Luis, the community is 95 percent Latino, and the median household income (MHI) is $31,064, which is nearly $20,000 below the state’s $49,928 MHI. Lots in this project will be sold to self-help participants via the USDA Section 502 loan program. Participants are first-time homebuyers with incomes at or below 80 percent of median income.

RCAC’s Loan Fund is participating in a $3.5 million Local Initiatives Support Corporation loan by providing a $1.75 million site development loan. This project will ensure that low-income families who would not qualify for a market rate mortgage will be able to achieve their homeownership dreams.