NEWS RELEASE Contact: Shore UP!, McKinley Tull, (410) 749-1142, ext. 305 or

USDA Rural Development, Drew Clendaniel, (302) 697-4324

FAMILIES BREAK GROUND TO BUILD HOMES WITH HELP OF USDA AND SHORE UP!

PRINCESS ANNE, January 22, 2002 – Twelve families will build their own homes here at a development called Lorretta Village with the help of the U.S. Department of Agriculture Rural Development and SHORE UP!, a non-profit organization based in Salisbury, according to Marlene Elliott, USDA Rural Development State Director for Maryland and Delaware.

USDA Rural Development presented a $142,200 Technical Assistance Grant as part of their Self-Help Housing Program to SHORE UP!, Inc. that will allow working families to build their own homes under the guidance of a construction supervisor. SHORE UP!’s Housing and Community Development Administrator Tyrone Chase said, "The grant will cover such costs as administrative expenses, certain power tools, and salary for a professional construction foreman."

Under the USDA Self-Help Housing Program, families receive a low interest single family housing loan. There is no down payment but the family invests "sweat equity" by providing most of the labor, thereby reducing the size of the mortgage and making the monthly payments more affordable.

Elliott, who was not in attendance, said, "these families are contributing not only to their own quality of life, but are helping to improve the social and economic well being of the community." The families, usually six to eight at a time, build the homes at the same time and move in at the same time so they all work equally as hard on their neighbor’s home as well as their own.

USDA has a number of programs designed to help low and moderate income families with acquiring a home. For more information on USDA’s rural housing programs, call Bill Murphy, local manager in Snow Hill at (410) 632-0616, ext. 4 or visit their website at www.rurdev.usda.gov.

# # #