Monday, Jun 6 2011 12:04PM
The USDA's housing program helps many low-income residents achieve homeownership.
Several rural Utah families who can't afford to purchase homes on their own received help from the nonprofit Rural Housing Development Corporation (RHDC), the Daily Herald reports.
Nine families from Utah County and six families from Heber County will become new homeowners thanks to the RHDC and the U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) Mutual Self-Help housing program, according to the paper. These families will construct one another's homes as part of the program.
"This is the best program available for low-income families. It is a great opportunity for the families," housing program director Janice Kocher told the newspaper.
Brad Bishop, executive director of the RHDC, told the newspaper 260 Utah families have received help from the program since it came to the state in 1999.
Though the USDA's housing program has helped put many disadvantaged rural families into homes of their own, federal budget cuts for 2012 could eliminate the program.