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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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Find Stories

Use the filters below to find additional stories about how our programs have helped rural communities across the nation.

Search Results: 56 Stories
Jolene stands outside her home.

Home repair leads to forgotten memories

As the days get longer and warmer, the sound of hammers against rooftops are a common sound echoing across neighborhoods as homeowners replace old shingles weathered by time, harsh South Dakota winters, and the strong spring winds that blow across the prairie. But replacing a… [Read More]
South Dakota
Home RepairHomeownership 2024
Linda Lawson on the front porch of her Wytheville, Va., home.

Putting Home Repairs in the Picture for One Wytheville Resident

You won’t find too many people who love their new roof as much as Linda Lawson. The shiny blue metal sheets not only appeal to her artistic sensibilities but also give her a greater sense of security as a barrier from the storms of life. The freelance photographer was already… [Read More]
Virginia
GrantsHome RepairHomeownershipHomeownership Month 2023
Michael Mitchell outside his home in Aberdeen.

Working together for homeownership

The saying ‘it takes a village’ can carry many meanings. For Aberdeen resident Michael Mitchell, it meant multiple organizations coming together to help homeowners like him find and purchase an affordable home. Through a partnership between USDA Rural Development (RD), Homes… [Read More]
South Dakota
GrantsHome RepairHomeownershipHousing
Barbara and her pet cat.

A Welcoming Home

Barbara Svatos is a proud member of the Wisner community. She helps run the scale for truck drivers hauling cattle in and out of a local feedlot. In this way, Barbara is part of the global food supply chain from her home in northeast Nebraska. USDA Rural Development’s … [Read More]
Nebraska
Home RepairHomeownershipHousing
Loretta 504 Success Story

Repairs Imperative to Keep Independence and Peace of Mind

Like many Wyoming women, Loretta is strong-willed and independent. She takes pride in her ability to do things for herself, and to not rely on others. But when her mobility started to decrease, Loretta’s daughter became concerned for her safety and wellbeing at home. Loretta… [Read More]
Wyoming
GrantsHome Repair
A woman looks up at the damage in her ceiling. Boards are being used to prop up ceiling sections.

There’s No Place Like Home

Sandra was born and raised in the rural town of Greenwood, Mississippi, but wanted more excitement in her life. She moved to Los Angeles in her early 20’s and loved it, but she got terribly homesick for her family every time she called home. In 1999, she followed her heart home… [Read More]
Mississippi
Home RepairHousingRural Development
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

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