Where: Ukiah, Mendocino County, California
Problem: Low-income families lack access to affordable housing and home ownership is out of reach.
Solution: RCAC staff works with Rural Community Housing Development Corporation (RCHCD) staff to improve its U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Mutual Self-Help Housing Program and complete a self-help project.
Ukiah, a community with more than 15,000 residents in Mendocino County, has a median household income of $42,609. More than 22 percent of households are below poverty level. For too many hardworking families, the dream of home ownership is out of reach.
To help these families access safe decent housing, RCAC provides technical assistance and financing to RCHDC to implement the USDA Mutual Self-Help Housing Program.
While RCHDC has developed affordable housing in Mendocino since 1975, the organization recently underwent a leadership change and added many new staff. To assist with the transition, and help implement an existing self-help project, RCAC staff provided loan packaging, construction scheduling and reporting training. As a result, the organization completed a project that had stalled during the economic downturn, assisting 40 families to achieve home ownership.
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.
With that project complete, RCHDC has begun work on a new self-help project that will provide homes for 62 low-income families.
During 2015, families, nonprofit organizations and USDA across the country celebrated the 50,000 dreams of homeownership realized during the 50 years of the program. In addition to the Section 523 Mutual Self-Help Program, the Section 502 Direct Loans are vital to the success of the participant families.
