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Success Stories

A mother and three daughters pose around a dining room table. There are lace curtains and blue wall in the background and some dishes on the table in the foreground.

“This is Home” – A Family Finds Their Forever Home in Calais, Maine

One of the first rooms Heather Gagne and her daughters began redecorating in their new home is the dining room, shown in the top photo. They have been busy repainting and making other updates. Raising a family in coastal Machias, Maine may sound lovely, but for Heather Gagne recent years proved stressful. There were few housing options in the Downeast community, and Heather was glad to find a rental home to…
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Use the filters below to find additional stories about how our programs have helped rural communities across the nation.

Search Results: 122 Stories
A women standing in her house with her arms held out at shoulder height to show how dipped her roof is. It sags in the middle where she stands.

Singing in the Rain

Doris is a retired nurse who has lived in her home in Greenwood, Mississippi for 42 years. When USDA Rural Development (RD) and the Delta Design Build Workshop (Delta DB) visited her in late January 2022, her home’s kitchen ceiling beam sagged down so low that she could touch it… [Read More]
Mississippi
Home RepairHousingMental HealthRural Development
A smiling woman stands on the roof of a house and watches while works fix the roof.

Preserving History in the Delta

The small town of Greenwood in the heart of the Mississippi Delta, once nicknamed the “Cotton Capital of the World,” has seen its share of success, but that was a long time ago. When cotton cultivation and processing became mechanized in the early 20th century, thousands of… [Read More]
Mississippi
Home RepairHousingRural Development
Women putting a blanket in the washing machine while looking at an electrical box above the washer that has no cover and is a nest of wires leading into the fuses. It looks very unsafe.

RD, RPG and Delta DB: a Great Team!

Retired schoolteacher and great-grandmother Rutha was due to turn 80 years old the day after she welcomed USDA Rural Development (RD) and the Delta Design Build (Delta DB) Workshop to her recently repaired home in Greenwood, Mississippi in late August 2022.  Last year,… [Read More]
Mississippi
Home RepairHousingRural Development
Greenwood, MS Sign

The Art of Hope

In January 2022, retired correctional officer Willie led USDA Rural Development (RD) specialists through her pitch-black, frigid home in Greenwood, Mississippi. Her three-room house had no permanent electricity, running water, plumbing, or interior finishing. In her bedroom, icy… [Read More]
Mississippi
Home RepairHousingRural Development
Resident hugging her new home.

Partnership’s key to smoothing bumpy road to successful homeownership

USDA Rural Development and Red Cliff Chippewa Housing Authority (RCCHA) have partnered over the years in Wisconsin to help tribal members make repairs to existing homes and to help renters reach their goals of becoming homeowners on tribal-leased land. Carrie Fulton, a USDA… [Read More]
Wisconsin
HomeownershipHousingTribal
A pretty white home with blue shutters and hanging plants

More Than Just Home Repair- Refinance Helps Atlantic County Senior Maintain Independent Living

Ms. Barbara Delozier is a single senior living in Atlantic County, New Jersey. Like a lot of seniors on fixed incomes, Ms. Delozier finds it hard to make ends meet and manage cost of homeownership. Barbara has lived in her home for over a decade. Her home, built in 1965, needed… [Read More]
New Jersey
GrantsHome RepairHomeownershipHousing
Brian and Catherine Bartunek family with Rural Development staff outside home

Bartuneks Become Homeowners After Long Journey

Buying a house can be a daunting process for anyone and it’s easy to become discouraged or overwhelmed, but for one South Dakota family, perseverance paid off for their long journey to home ownership. Brian and Catherine Bartunek wanted a place to call home for their three… [Read More]
South Dakota
HomeownershipHomeownership Month 2022HousingRural DevelopmentTribal
Caucasian couple with light skin, dark hair, stand on porch of their new house with brown siding and tan brick.

USDA Guaranteed Home Loan Brings Couple Independence

Haylee and Hayden Nix were in the market to purchase their first home after renting a house from a relative. Haylee said, “We wanted a home to have our own space and build equity in a property that would benefit us in the future.”The Nix found the house plans and property… [Read More]
Utah
HomeownershipHousing
Family front porch of new home

From Wheels to Walls - Attaining the Dream of Homeownership

For many, owning your own home is the America Dream.  But the road to homeownership can be difficult to maneuver and include roadblocks and detours. Alexandria S., a widowed mother of four, is all too familiar with those bumps in the road and worked in partnership with the… [Read More]
Colorado
HomeownershipHomeownership Month 2022Housing

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