Contacts: Janice Clark, 202-842-8600, ext. 131, janice@ruralhome.org

Loan Supports Infrastructure Improvement in Colonias Community of Berino, New Mexico

Berino, NM, Sept. 10, 2010 – Tierra del Sol Housing Corporation, a nonprofit housing development organization, has received a loan of over $330,000 to help develop 79 homes for low-income homebuyers. The subdivision, in the colonia community of Berino, will be known as Parque Homes. The funds come from the Housing Assistance Council, a national rural housing group that supports local organizations working to meet the housing needs of low-income families in rural America.

The population of Berino is growing, and the area is federally designated as a colonia with high levels of substandard housing or overcrowding. These 79 homes will help meet the community’s great need for affordable, quality housing. The new homes will have two, three, or four bedrooms and will be constructed with a number of energy efficiency features.

“Sixty of the houses at Parque Homes will be built using the self-help sweat equity construction method,” explained Moises Loza, executive director of the Housing Assistance Council. “The homebuyers work in groups to construct their own and each other’s houses, reducing their costs by contributing hundreds of hours of their own labor.”

Tierra del Sol expects to break ground for the project in September and to begin construction of homes in December. The groups of seven or eight households doing self-help construction will begin and finish their work on a staggered schedule, with the last group expected to complete their homes by December 2013.

Tierra del Sol is an experieced housing developer that has completed over 6,000 units of affordable housing for vulnerable populations. TDS’s housing development is strengthened through its services in homebuyer education, credit counseling, homeownership training and default prevention, neighborhood planning, and water, sewer, and community infrastructure development. TDS works in New Mexico, Texas and Arizona and has a strong presence along the U.S.-Mexico border. It devotes special attention to farmworkers, displaced workers, single-parent families, the elderly, people with disabilities, and residents of federally designated colonias along the border.

A national nonprofit corporation headquartered in Washington, D.C., and founded in 1971, the Housing Assistance Council helps local organizations build affordable homes in rural America by providing below-market financing, technical assistance, research, training, and information services. HAC operates several loan funds that provide vital seed money to rural housing developers such as the TDS. HAC funds help these organizations take the necessary steps to improve housing and living standards for rural, low- and very low-income households, especially in high-needs areas like colonias. These funds are used to create new single- or multifamily housing units, rehabilitate existing units, and improve water and waste water disposal systems in rural communities. HAC is an equal opportunity lender.

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