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Self-Help Builder News June 2012 Volume 5, Issue #2
The Self-Help Builder News is also available as a PDF, if you prefer. Just click here to view.
Supporting USDA housing programs
By Stanley Keasling, RCAC chief executive officer
Once again we are faced with insufficient funding for the rural housing programs in the President’s budget. So we will have our work cut out for us when Congress finally takes up the appropriations bills. Read more here. >>
Lilia Jimenez - Original homebuilder and SHE board member
By Jessica Zuckerman
Reprinted with permission from Self-Help Enterprises
Lilia Jimenez, mother of 14 and a farmworker with little formal education, built this home with her family more than 50 years ago in the community of Goshen. She is one of the original mutual self-help homebuilders and she still lives in her home today. Read more here. >>
Milestone on a long road to success
By Kathy Heinrichs Wiest
Editor's note: This mutal self-help subdivision is in the same neigborhood as the Jimenez home (see "Lilia Jimenez - Original homebuilder and SHE board member" article above)
Edith Arreguis can already picture enjoying her new home with her son, Leixander. Read more here. >>
Census hits hard on rural eligibility
By Stanley Keasling, RCAC chief executive officer
When USDA certifies the census, something that will happen before the start of the new fiscal year, a host of communities that have been eligible for rural housing programs will no longer be eligible. Over 500 communities across the country, and at least 162 in the RCAC service area, will have populations that exceed the limits in the housing act. Read more here. >>
Families work together for home ownership
Reprinted with permission from Nogales International, May 4, 2012.
Eight months of hard work paid off for nine families on Tuesday when they were handed the keys to their new homes in Rio Rico (AZ). Read more here. >>
Montana marketing success
By Nancy Jacobsen, RCAC rural development specialist
Community Action Partnership of Northwest Montana (CAPNM) has built 136 homes in the Flathead Valley and has six more homes currently under construction.But the economic slowdown and housing crisis has created huge challenges. Faced with closing its mutual self-help housing program because it could not qualify its next group of families, RCAC and a dedicated group of CAPNM staff developed a new approach to market the mutual self-help program in Montana. Read more here. >>
The IRS starting its 403(b) plan audits
Reprinted with permission from The NonProfit Times.
When the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) recently announced that it was going to start auditing 403(b) plans for the 2009 tax year, the notification received scant attention. After all, it’s pretty common for the IRS to start up a new audit cycle several years after the close of a particular tax year.
This time, however, things might be a bit different. Read more here. >>
Grantee of the month: Hawaii Island Community Development Corporation
A place to call their own
From North Hawaii News, Thursday, March 17, 2011
By Cynthia Sweeney
Amy Secuya may have summed it up best. “When you have a dream, you want to go after it,” she said. Read more here. >>
Which version of Energy Star do I have to meet?
By Art Seavey, RCAC rural development specialist
It varies from state to state and when you applied for funding. Learn more here. >>
Correcting incorrect data in SHARES and other helpful screens
We’ve touched on the problem of information being entered into SHARES incorrectly before, but I’ve had several calls recently. Once construction dates have been entered in SHARES, changes cannot be made to correct certain data. Read more here. >>
Self-Help news & notices
Click here for the latest in Procedure Notices, Unnumbered Letters, Administrative Notices, final Budget Numbers and other reference information.>>
Upcoming events
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