Sherry Parker was single mother to three children when devastation rained down.

California’s Camp Fire, the deadliest and most destructive wildfire in California’s history, and the most expensive natural disaster in the world in 2018 in terms of insured losses, devoured their rental home; and in the process took three of their pets along with it.

The family was temporarily relocated to Auburn where they stayed in the home of a kind stranger who donated a cottage to the wild-fire survivors.

Amelia Smith is building her first home through the USDA Rural Development's Mutual Self-Help program in collaboration with Six County Association of Governments (SEAULG), which improves local government coordination of mutually beneficial programs where she lives in Sevier, Utah.

As a single mother of two, Amber W. works as a youth counselor, a YMCA fitness instructor, and a dance instructor for children and adults with disabilities in Helena, Mont.  Amber had long dreamed of becoming a homeowner and, in 2021, her vision came to fruition through a combination of USDA Rural Development (RD) Single Family Home Loans and Grants.

Sustainability has been a fundamental tenant of the food cooperative movement since it began, and not only in terms of selling organic, sustainably-harvested food. Co-ops around the country are also turning to renewable energy. For the Astoria Co-op on the Oregon coast, that meant finding a way to offset the energy required to keep its products refrigerated. When the co-op began renovating its facility, it presented the perfect opportunity to install solar panels, but the cost exceed its budget.

In Moab, Utah, Community Rebuilds literally takes dirt-cheap sustainable, highly energy-efficient materials to build affordable homes. With assistance from USDA Rural Development’s Mutual Self-Help program, individuals can apply to build a natural self-help home.

After a borrower is approved, Community Rebuilds 501(C)(3) non-profit corporation (CR) instructs individuals in building straw bale homes; allowing the borrower to do sweat equity to lower the overall cost.

People driving through the town of Trenton, North Carolina, are seeing a new building right off the downtown area.

With the assistance of $1 million in grants from USDA Rural Development the town’s new fire station was officially opened with a ribbon-cutting ceremony in October 2020.

The Trenton Fire department had to evacuate their previous firehouse due to flooding during Hurricane Florence.