The Mutual Self-Help Housing Program’s success of building 50,000 homes over the past 50 years is, in part, due to the expertise and commitment of the Technical & Management Assistance (T&MA) Contractors, who aid the participating organizations in implementing the program. There are four T&MA Contractors that oversee the program in four regions of the United States.
RCAC
Rural Community Assistance Corporation (RCAC) is a nonprofit organization that provides training, technical and financial resources and advocacy so rural communities can achieve their goals and visions. Headquartered in West Sacramento, California, RCAC’s employees serve rural communities in the western United States, and the Pacific Islands.
RCAC’s work encompasses a wide range of services including technical assistance and training for environmental infrastructure; affordable housing development; economic and leadership development; and community development finance. These services are available to a variety of communities and organizations including communities with populations of fewer than 50,000, other nonprofit groups and tribal organizations.
RCAC seeks new partnerships and opportunities to advance comprehensive community development.
RCAC’s core values are as follows:
- Leadership: identifies innovative strategies to further rural community and economic development and inspires partners to achieve great outcomes
- Collaboration: achieves superior results by respectfully and inclusively identifying partners
- Commitment: works with passion and dedication to improve rural communities and the lives of their low-income residents
- Quality: produces exceptional work products to help our partners meet their goals
- Integrity: practices the highest professional standards and cultural competency in our work
LIFT CAA
LIFT Community Action Agency, Inc. was incorporated as a nonprofit organization on March 21, 1968. The agency’s purpose as stated in its original articles of incorporation was “To assist in developing, executing, and coordinating plans and the programs authorized under the Economic Opportunity Act of 1964 and subsequent amendments which may be made to that act, and other Federal, State, and local laws and programs which will tend to alleviate and eradicate poverty within the area of operation of this agency, exclusively for charitable purposes.”
LIFT’s Mission: Helping People, Changing Lives.
The Promise of Community Action: “Community Action changes people’s lives, embodies the spirit of hope, improves communities, and makes America a better place to live. We care about the entire community and we are dedicated to helping people help themselves and each other.”
NeighborGood Partners
NeighborGood Partners, formally NCALL Research Inc has been in business serving the Delmarva Peninsula since 1976. NeighborGood Partners is an IRS-designated 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization based in Dover, Delaware, that specializes in affordable housing development, education and lending. As a service provider for lower-income households, NeighborGood Partners also offers pre-purchase counseling, financial education and default and foreclosure prevention programs to the public. As an intermediary working on the Delmarva Peninsula, NeighborGood Partners helps locally based nonprofits to develop multi-family housing projects, mostly apartments, through a variety of development services such as financial packaging, asset management, and organizational development.
NeighborGood Partners’s Self-Help Housing Team provides technical and management assistance to operating, predevelopment, and prospective self-help housing grantees and organizations in the 21-state northeast region through a contract with USDA’s Rural Housing Service.
FNPH
Florida Non-Profit Housing, Inc. (FNPH) is the successor organization of the American Friends Service Committee’s Florida Migrant and Seasonal Farmworker Housing effort. Formed in 1978, FNPH’s initial goal was to improve farmworker housing throughout the state of Florida by providing technical assistance and training to nonprofit housing providers. Florida’s first Section 523 Self-Help Housing Grantees were products of this effort.
Today, our mission has broadened to include rental housing development and related services for low and very low-income rural residents. Our service area has also expanded to include Alabama, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Maryland, Mississippi, North and South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, The Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico.
Since 1981, FNPH has been the Southeast Regional Contractor for USDA Rural Housing Services’ (RHS) Mutual Self-Help Housing TA Grant Program. Our primary purpose is to help housing agencies build capacity, enabling them to be more productive in their communities.
Eligible organizations can receive administrative grants through the RHS Section 523 TA Grant Program. These funds can be used to hire staff and pay other administrative costs to recruit families, provide homeownership counseling, package mortgages, and provide construction supervision and training. A typical grant is two years.
Mortgages are provided primarily through Rural Development’s Section 502 Loan Program. Qualifying families can receive 100% financing with subsidized interest rates The Southeast Region has served over 11,000 people through the Self-Help Housing Program.
