Where: Orland, Glen County, California

Issue: Low-income families lack affordable housing options

Outcome: Rural Community Assistance Corporation’s (RCAC) Loan Fund provided a $1.3 million loan to finance 33 affordable housing single-family lots

For many low-income, working families, the dream of homeownership is out of reach. To help these families access safe decent housing, RCAC provides technical assistance and financing to local nonprofit organizations to implement the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Mutual Self-Help Housing program.

Assistance includes financial and construction management training, loan financing packaging, outreach and marketing and homeownership training for participants.

RCAC’s Loan Fund provided a $1.475 million loan to Community Housing Improvement Program, a USDA Section 523 self-help grantee, for acquisition of 33 finished lots. The organization will work with low- and very low-income families to construct self-help homes in Orland, California. Demand for affordable housing is strong in Orland, a small, rural community in the northern part of the state with a $36,267 median household income.

Under the USDA contract, RCAC assists grantees in the western United States to successfully complete the production of single-family financed housing under the Self-Help Housing program. RCAC coordinates activities with USDA staff and regularly reports on each grantee’s activity and performance production. Currently, RCAC provides technical assistance to 50 active program grantees including CHIP.

As with all self-help housing projects, participants are required to provide at least 65 percent of the labor to build their home and their neighbors’ homes. They work 35 hours per week, in addition to their day jobs, for almost a year. This “sweat equity” is contributed in lieu of a down payment. This, along with a Section 502 loan, creates an affordable mortgage.

Construction on this program is expected to begin in summer 2018.