Where: Wasatch and Grand counties, Utah
Problem: Lack of affordable housing options in high-cost resort communities.
Solution: RCAC assists nonprofit organizations through the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Mutual Self-Help Housing Program and RCAC’s Loan Fund provides financing for lot acquisition.

In Utah’s high-cost resort areas, affordable housing options for working families are limited. The median cost for a home in the area is more than $300,000, a mortgage that teachers and those who work in the area’s resorts can scarcely afford.

To assist with the housing shortage, RCAC works with two organizations to provide affordable home ownership options. In Heber City, Self-Help Homes assisted 32 families to build their homes through the self-help program. Groups of six to eight families have built homes during the past four years. In each group, there were at least one or two teachers, county employees and single parents.

The Housing Authority of Southeastern Utah is building self-help housing in Moab, a well-known resort area near Arches and Canyonlands National Parks. In addition to self-help training and technical assistance, in 2015 RCAC’s loan fund provided the organization with $190,000 in financing to purchase and develop four lots for low-income families in the self-help program.

Because the cost to purchase land in this area is so high, the organization recently completed a higher density project using the self-help model. The result was a six-unit town home project, the first of its kind in Utah.

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, creating an affordable mortgage.

USDA’s Section 523 Mutual Self-Help program provides the necessary funding to support this work and the USDA Section 502 direct loan program provides the affordable mortgages to complement the participant’s sweat equity.