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Self Help Builder News March 2012 Volume 5 Issue #1 >
More than 100 Alaskan's achieve homeownership through Mutual Self-Help Housing
By Angela Sisco, RCAC rural development specialist
Alaska Community Development Corporation (Alaska CDC) and Rural Alaska Community Action Program, Inc. (RurAL CAP) have collectively overseen the successful completion of 84 Mutual Self-Help homes in rural Alaska while another 17 homes are currently under construction in Kenai and Palmer. In the summer of 2012, Alaska will have 101 participants who have achieved homeownership through the Mutual Self-Help Housing Program.
The USDA – Rural Development Mutual Self-Help Housing Program provides a unique homeownership opportunity to very low and low-income families and individuals through low interest loans and sweat equity. Additional subsidies are obtained by Alaska CDC and RurAL CAP and passed on to participants to reduce their mortgages to the point where they become affordable on the wages earned in lower-paid tourism, services, and retail sector jobs. Under this program participants work together in groups under supervision of a construction supervisor, group worker and program director to build their own homes. Families in groups of 6-12 work simultaneously to build their own homes for up to a year contributing more than 65 percent of the labor.
Self-Help Housing not only helps the individual homebuyer families, but brings big benefits to local communities as well. Self-help projects increase affordable housing stock, increase property tax base to support local government services and boost local economies by purchasing building materials and hiring local subcontractors. Alaska CDC and RurAL CAP’s partnership with USDA – Rural Development is critical to bringing affordable homeownership to low and very-low income families throughout rural Alaska.