SLO County project will have homeowners build own houses ‘like a big Lego set.’ How to apply
A new batch of homes built by their future owners’ hands is on its way in San Luis Obispo County — and you could be one of the builders.
People’s Self-Help Housing’s owner-builder program, which employs the labor of its prospective homeowners to lower building costs and give families a leg up to home ownership, is opening a new round of applications to build in San Miguel.
Mission Gardens II, a 14-home expansion of People’s Self-Help Housing’s 39 existing “sweat equity” homes in San Miguel, will open applications to qualifying households starting next month, according to the project’s website.
Jimmy Summer, People’s Self-Help Housing’s new director of home ownership, said the homes will fill out a subdivision that the housing nonprofit has owned for the past decade.
“This is the best shot that families have if it is their dream to have home ownership, to realize it here in SLO County, where as we know, it’s one of the hardest places in the country to achieve it,” Summer said.
How does ‘sweat equity’ work?
Summer said owner-builder projects such as Mission Gardens II are one of the nonprofit’s best tools for getting households that may be priced out of the local market into home ownership — a stepping stone at the lower end of home prices.
The previous 39 homes built in the first three phases of Mission Gardens I were completed in 2020 and feature similar layouts to the incoming builds, Summer said.
Located at the end of N Street south of 11th Street in San Miguel, each home will be built with three or four bedrooms, two bathrooms and a two-car garage. Homes will also come equipped with energy-efficient features such as solar panels.
Summer said the homes will likely cost around $500,000 per home, and will take the owner-builders around 14-18 months to complete, often working more than 40 hours each week on the project including weekends.
Over that period, owner-builders will do around two thirds of the construction work themselves, with skilled laborers and contractors completing the more difficult parts such as electrical work, plumbing and drywall, Summer said.
“We use this pre-cut lumber company so that the families don’t actually have to cut it all on site, and it comes with plan so kind of like a big Lego set,” Summer said.
Though the price per home comes out to around $500,000, the owner-builders will only pay a fraction of that sum, Summer said.
Because the project utilizes United States Department of Agriculture 502 loans — which provide affordable mortgages to low-income households in rural communities — the owner-builders will make their down payment in labor, Summer said. Once completed, the owners will only pay around 30% of their monthly income as mortgage thanks to the “miracle loans,” he said.
Summer said around 90% of all owner-builders using this type of home ownership model will stay in their home for more than 20 years.
He said People’s Self-Help Housing hopes to use the owner-builder model again in a potential 10-unit project in Los Osos, a place that has seen little affordable housing or home growth at all due to water restrictions.
“It’s pretty amazing, because of the commitment they make up front, they’re really dedicated to these homes,” Summer said. “We do have instances where families have to move somewhere else for jobs or family reasons, and that’s what we’re really proud of, too — they get to have that effort and work they put in in the form of equity, and then also that equity appreciation, so these families get to keep that money towards a future down payment.”
Do you qualify for Mission Gardens II?
Households looking to apply for the new project must make an annual income of at least $55,000, have a good credit and rental history and be committed to working more than 40 hours each week on the homes.
A household of one to four residents cannot make more than $101,900 a year, while households of five to eight people cannot make more than $134,00 a year.
The loan borrower must be a U.S. citizen or permanent resident, though citizenship is not required for all household members.
Intake forms will become available Monday at 9 a.m. online at pshhc.org/MG or at the nonprofit’s 1060 Kendall Rd. office in San Luis Obispo.
Forms must be submitted by Dec. 16 at 5 p.m. and will be selected by a random lottery on Dec. 18 to determine the order of processing.
Applicants will learn their lottery placement no later than Dec. 23.
