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USDA housing program celebrates 60th anniversary in Alaska

by Channel 2 News staff
Saturday, October 24, 2009

ANCHORAGE, Alaska -- The U.S. Department of Agriculture is celebrating the 60th anniversary of its Self-Help Housing program.

Undersecretary for Rural Development Dallas Tonsager and Sen. Mark Begich were out in Wasilla and Palmer Saturday morning, meeting families who have built a home through the program or are currently in the building stages. They toured the construction sites and even helped out with the building process themselves.

The housing program helps families build their own homes and offers a loan program based on the family's income. The entire process, from designing the home to buying materials and each phase of building, is done as a group with the families working together.

Tonsager says the families put in about 30 hours of work each week on the home, and construction can take up to a year.

"When we get done, they'll have sweat equity in this and they'll have a loan in place to finance it," Tonsager said. "And nobody moves into the house until the whole group's done, so there's a lot of motivation to get it done together."

"It's a wonderful opportunity," said homebuilder Tabitha Stevenson. "Because you know, being a single mom, raising two kids on one income, you know, this is-this is going to be my dream home."

The program is funded by a grant from the USDA.