The Community Action Commission (CAC) of Fayette County will celebrate a new local homeowner as part of National Homeownership Month.
June is National Homeownership Month and the Community Action Commission of Fayette County is holding a ribbon cutting event on June 20 at the newly-completed home of Charles Cadamy to highlight the program and the opportunity that exists for current area residents. The Self-Help Housing Program serves those who make 80 percent or less than the area median incomes of the various counties that are served. The mortgages for the homes are obtained through the USDA Rural Development and are a low interest rate loan with no down payment required to become a homeowner.
“We are wrapping up our current grant that has helped 32 families obtain their dream of owning their own homes,” Steve Creed, CAC Self Help Housing Director, said. “Of those 32 families, 18 were in Fayette County, nine were in Ross County and five in Greene County. The Self-Help Housing Program offers potential homeowners two different options now, the opportunity to build a new home or purchase an existing home and rehab it. Of the 32 homes that were completed, 21 were new home construction and 11 were acquisition/rehabs. Another opportunity that exists for those that decide to buy existing homes is the ability to leverage funds from other programs to assist in making the homes even more affordable. In this last grant we were able to leverage an additional $72,000 total in funds to help the families make their homes even more affordable by reducing their rehab costs. We now have the ability to help families in six counties, Fayette, Ross, Greene, Highland, Clinton, and Madison counties with homeownership in the Self Help Housing Program.”
According to Creed, this program is a benefit to the families in many ways. Families that participate in the program have immediate financial equity in their homes due to the fact that costs for labor are greatly reduced due to contributing their own labor in the build or rehab. It has been proven through various studies that children do better both emotionally and educationally as well, according to Creed. Children growing up in stable housing raises educational achievement and with better education, a better chance for higher earning as they become adults.
Their emotional well-being is helped due to the stability of not having to worry about where they’re going to live, getting out of substandard rentals and poor neighborhoods, and by the example their parents set by working to provide that stability, according to Creed.
It also assists the economics of the community by increasing the tax base of the community, allowing for more services for the citizens of the community, said Creed. By restoring existing homes in the neighborhoods it not only increases the value of the home being rehabbed, but also increases the attractiveness of the neighborhood by raising home values for the neighbors and eliminating blights and eyesores.
“Our next grant is about to begin and our goal is to assist 22 additional families to become homeowners,” Creed said. “We currently have nine new families determined eligible for the program and several others who have applied and are waiting on the beginning of the new grant. We hope to continue with the success of the program that began over 20 years ago here in Fayette County and provide these opportunities to many more families in the future. Over the life of the program here, we have helped construct nearly 300 new homes in the county. There are self-help programs across the nation helping those with the desire to own their own homes, but Community Action Commission of Fayette County has the only self-help program in the state of Ohio.”
The information in this article was provided by Steve Creed, CAC of Fayette County Self-Help Housing Director. For more information about the program, contact the Self-Help Housing department at (740) 335-1831.
