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ExpectMore.govExpectMore.gov home pageEXPECT FEDERAL PROGRAMS TO PERFORM WELL, AND BETTER EVERY YEAR.
Program Assessment

Program

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Mutual Self-Help Housing -- Technical Assistance Grants

Self-Help grants are made to non-profit organizations to provide technical assistance to families so that they can build homes and get a mortgage. Beneficiaries are typically very low-income, minority families. Participants are required to contribute at least 65 percent of the labor and construct their homes as a group.

Rating

What This Rating Means

PERFORMING
Moderately Effective

In general, a program rated Moderately Effective has set ambitious goals and is well-managed. Moderately Effective programs likely need to improve their efficiency or address other problems in the programs' design or management in order to achieve better results.
  • USDA's Rural Housing Service's requirement to contribute 65 percent "sweat equity" makes this program unique. The program serves the lowest income families, yet they are able to succeed at rates higher than the rest of USDA's single family housing direct loan borrowers.
  • The program has appropriate long-term goals and annual measures, which take into account economic factors and, in most cases, have established baselines and ambitious targets.
  • The program's ability to grow is slow. This is due to a variety of factors including: the lengthy process for a sponsor group to become an active self-help grantee, land acquisition problems, environmental/title clearance issues and finding an adequate number of eligible families.

Improvement Plan

About Improvement Plans

We are taking the following actions to improve the performance of the program:

  • Establishing ambitious targets for all measures.
  • Reducing the time it takes a new sponsor group to come into the program and start assisting families.

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