Senators Collins, King Announce Rural Development Grant for Community Concepts Inc.

Press Release

United States Senators Susan Collins, Chairman of the Transportation, Housing and Urban Development Appropriations Subcommittee, and Angus King announced today that the United States Department of Agriculture has awarded Community Concepts Inc. in Lewiston $793,800 in grant funding to help 30 very-low and low-income families construct their own homes in rural areas across Maine. Through the Mutual Self-Help Housing Program, this funding will help families, through partnership with Community Concepts, build homes in Androscoggin, Cumberland, Franklin, Kennebec, and Oxford Counties.

"This important investment will help 30 low-income families across Maine build good, safe homes," the Senators said in a joint statement. "Home-ownership has long been a hallmark of the American dream and this important investment will help some of the most vulnerable Mainers build their own homes and achieve that dream."

The Mutual Self Help Housing Program provides grants to qualified organizations to help them carry out local self-help housing construction projects. Grant recipients supervise groups of very-low and low-income individuals and families as they construct their own homes in rural areas. The group members provide most of the construction labor on each other's homes, with technical assistance from the organization overseeing the project.

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