ProJo: Burrillville housing development built by the families who will live there

The families are selected based on income, credit and employment criteria, including having earnings between 50 percent and 80 percent of the area median income for Providence County.

BURRILLVILLE, R.I. — On a quiet street off Reservoir Road in Pascoag, seven families hope to move into seven new Colonial-style, single-family houses before the holidays.

The difference in this new housing development, called Fernwood, is that most of the work of building the homes has been performed by the families themselves.

For more than a year, the Cole, Guilmain, Keegan, Lowe, Pepler, Ryan, and Taylor families have put in about 30 hours a week to help build the houses, as part of the Mutual Self-Help Housing Program. Offered through the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the program uses the “sweat equity” of the future owners to build close to 65 percent of the homes, nearly cutting the cost in half, according to Meghan Rego of NeighborWorks Blackstone River Valley. The USDA then offers the homeowners low-interest loans (rates can be as low as 1 percent) that are affordable based on their incomes.

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Courtesy of Providence Journal