Kentucky Highlands, USDA Rural Development announce self-help housing program for Clinton County
Friday May 30, 2008
She survived the tornado of 1974. And she's waited 61 years to have a home to call her own. In May, Joan Thomas finally got her wish.
Thomas is part of a new program that will help 12 families in Clinton County build and own their own homes.
The USDA's Rural Development has awarded Kentucky Highlands a $249,000 grant, through its Mutual Self-Help Housing Program. The grant funds will offset administrative costs and pay construction supervisory personnel to train homeowner/ builders and oversee the first phase, which will construct four of the 12 homes.
"The tornado of 1974 took my mobile home and my sister's mobile home," Thomas said. "This will be my first house, and since it will have a basement, it'll be the first time in more than 30 years that I won't have to worry every time a storm hits.
"I'll have my own place, which I've always wanted before I die. Right now, I'm living in a 1974 mobile home that's not in good shape."
Total value for the entire program will be $1.2 million. Additional funding for families will come from Rural Development, which provides the first and largest mortgage for Self-Help recipients. KHIC also will work to identify other sources of funding depending upon the circumstances of each individual household.
Qualifying families will save money by building their own homes under the direction of Kentucky Highlands, and they will qualify for low interest, long-term, no down payment loans from USDA. Twelve homes will be built near the fairgrounds in Albany beginning with four families today.
"For three years, we've been working with other partners to explore ways to bring more affordable housing to families in this area and to create jobs through affordable housing," said Jerry Rickett, president & CEO of Kentucky Highlands Investment Corporation. "This is the first effort where Kentucky Highlands has taken the lead, and we are excited to integrate affordable housing with job training and job creation."
Kentucky Highlands has helped with seven housing projects in the past. Like previous activities, this program will utilize a major housing component developed by KHIC - the housing CORE. It's a factory-built kitchen/bath unit that will create jobs for local people while speeding up the on-site construction work and reducing the cost of specialized tasks such as plumbing, electrical wiring and carpentry. Students at Southeast Kentucky Community and Technical College and Foothills Academy, a group home for troubled youths, will gain practical job skills by building the CORE units.
"This federal grant by the USDA and KHIC will allow qualifying families in Clinton County to have a place to call home," U.S. Senator Mitch McConnell said. "These programs are so important to Kentucky, and I am pleased the funding will be provided for this worthwhile program."
Here's how the program works:
- Families apply to participate and have their family and credit status checked to see if they qualify. Qualifying families must not exceed 80 percent of area median income and be willing to provide their own construction labor;
- Kentucky Highlands hires professional builders to lead, coach and supervise construction, and families work about 20 hours per week on their and other team members' homes;
- The savings on labor, administrative cost and the builder's profit total about 15- 20 percent of the home's cost or about $15,000 - $20,000; and
- The interest rate may be as low as 1 percent, and there is no down payment.
Other funding sources are augmenting this project. One of those is Kentucky Housing Corporation through its HOME and the Affordable Housing Trust Fund.
"The partnership between Kentucky Housing Corporation and Rural Development is making the dream of homeownership a reality for at least two Kentucky families who may not have had a chance to own their own home otherwise," said Marilyn Stober Harris, Kentucky Housing Corporation manager, homeownership production.
"By allowing the homeowner to take ownership of the construction, we are reducing the costs involved in purchasing the home. By becoming homeowners, they are bringing stability to both their families and their communities."
The only other location in Kentucky that has been a federal Self-Help Housing Program recipient is Providence.
For more information on how to apply for a home, contact Elmer Parlier, vice president/housing of Kentucky Highlands, at (800) 998-7694.