There is nothing quite like the glow of a proud new homeowner. For Kate McGowan, her new home in Cherryfield is everything she ever dreamed of.

Kate, whose life’s journey has taken her from far Northern Maine where she was born, thousands of miles away to California, and back again, knows she is finally home to stay.

Homeownership helps families and individuals build savings over time; however, keeping your home in good repair can still be a financial hardship for homeowners.  USDA Rural Development’s Home Repair Loan and Grant Program can assist rural homeowners with these needed repairs.  

Sarah Butte wanted to use her background in sustainable horticulture to start a business creating herbal products from garden-grown and foraged plants. She created a CSA and then sold her products through a natural medicine clinic, but she never earned enough for it to be more than a hobby.

She took a chance and moved back to Florence, her rural hometown on the Oregon coast, to operate a hundred-year-old homestead and launch a bioregional apothecary as a side job.

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.