The Southeastern Utah Association of Local Governments (SEUALG) offers various programs to help income-qualified households in Carbon and Emery Counties with housing. A few of those programs are the USDA Ground Up Construction, Acquisition Rehab and Single-Family Rehab Programs.

Program Manager, Barbara Fausett explains the Group Up Construction program, “It assists families build their own homes and they do that in groups of four, so there’s four families that work together in that program. So all four families work together on each other homes and it makes it to where it’s not so daunting.” The Ground Up Construction Program is basically a sweat equity program where family and friends can assist with the construction. The program is 100 percent financed meaning it is not necessary for the applicant to come in with any cash down. This program generally takes a new homeowner a full year to complete the construction.

There was a time when the program just was doing Acquisition Rehabs, which is where an existing home is purchased and improvements are made to it but with housing prices going up nowadays there aren’t very many good fixer-uppers offered at a reasonable price. “That’s why we stepped in to doing the Ground Up Construction because the cost was more effective in the equity, they gained out of it was greater in the Ground Up Construction than the Acquisition Rehab,” stated Fausett. The Acquisition Rehab loan program includes the purchase of the home and rehab costs and is 100 percent financed. This program can generally get a homeowner in their new home within months or after improvements have been made to the home.

The Single-Family Rehab is another great program offered through SEUALG. This is income-based and for current homeowners needing improvements to their present home. “Qualifying would be an individual 62 or older, disabled, or has children in the home who are ages 10 and under. The purpose of the rehab on the homes is to make a safe and sanitary living environment for the homeowner,” said Program Specialist, Michele Kelley. A lot of the improvements made to these homes in this program are siding, windows, roofing, sewer and electrical upgrades to just name a few. The program will find the contractor that is needed to do the improvements on the home so that is not a worry the homeowner will have to do.