Butte, Montana is a community that represents the boom and bust of the silver and copper mining of years past. A Superfund site and home of the Berkley Pit, uptown Butte abounds with run down, vacant homes full of hazardous waste materials. One shining star in the community is an organization that combines Habitat for Humanity with USDA Rural Development’s Self-Help Housing program to provide safe and affordable housing to both the low- and very-low populations of Butte and four surrounding counties. Their beginning started in 1994 when the founding partners drew from their experience in developing “High Performance Housing Partnership” house plans that produce homes that can be heated for less than $250 per year in a region where winter temperatures often fall well below zero degrees Fahrenheit.

The Habitat for Humanity and Rural Development Self-Help Housing program partnership has successfully provided affordable housing to many Butte families that had never imagined the dream of homeownership could be a reality. The first self-help condo project began with a vacant structure in a residential neighborhood and eventually became a five-unit condominium project providing homeownership opportunities to five developmentally disabled young adults.

National Affordable’s success is based on its willingness to reach out to the least likely candidates for homeownership. The Habitat model brings volunteer support to the family labor requirements of the self-help model. Another novel approach has been developing a partnership with the local College of Technology, which allows construction students to work their two-year degree program alongside families to build their homes.

RCAC has provided technical assistance to the National Affordable Housing Network since its first self-help grant in 2003.