We’re excited to announce our Self-Help Housing team has nearly completed their 100th house! To celebrate, we’re hosting a Ribbon-Cutting Ceremony and “100th Home” Open House Thursday, June 26, 2025 from 4PM-6PM at Rasmussen Court in Alpine Crossing – and you’re invited!

About Our Self-Help Housing Program

A lot of Idahoans feel like owning a home is out of reach unless they already have one—and they’re not wrong. That’s why our Self-Help Housing program, made possible through partnerships with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Self-Help Homeownership Opportunity Program (SHOP) and the Idaho Housing and Finance Association, offers an innovative way to make affordable homeownership a reality.

Here’s how it helps:

  • It adds new homes to the market, giving more people a shot at finding housing.
  • Homeowners are involved in the construction process. Because our participants in 2024 live in Alpine Crossing, it also instills a real sense of community.
  • By the time they finish the program, participants not only possess the tools necessary to maintain their new homeownership status (i.e., knowledge of basic home maintenance, repair, and weatherization skills), but they also better stabilize their home and employment situations.

Our Self-Help Housing program isn’t your typical affordable housing model (think Habitat for Humanity, for example). We’re always tweaking and improving it to better match what’s really going on in the local housing market.

The Road to 100 Houses Built

We’ve come a long way since becoming a SHOP (Self-Help Homeownership Opportunity Program) grantee in 2003.

At first, our Self-Help Housing program followed a Mutual Self-Help Housing (MSHH) model where homebuyers teamed with other buyers to work on each other’s homes. Our first MSHH homebuyer group – made up of six families – broke ground at our first site in American Falls, Idaho. It was there our 1st house was built.

Our 10th house was built in 2007 with the help of our second MSHH homebuyer group in Malad City, Idaho.

In 2008, we rolled out our Acquisition/Infill Housing program. This program took a more individual approach, requiring homebuyers to contribute sweat equity towards their own home. Between the two models, we completed our 25th home in Inkom, Idaho. The home was 1 of 9 homes built in an unprecedented 14-month period – a record that still stands today.

In 2009, the Acquisition/Infill Housing program replaced the MSHH program. We further expanded our Financial Education services to include a Homebuyer Essential Training Program.

We built our 50th home in 2010 in Preston, Idaho for our first special-needs Acquisition/Infill Housing homebuyer. One year later, we completed our first Energy Star certified home in Chubbuck, Idaho, which set the standard for all our newly constructed homes for several years.

Then in 2012, we introduced the Self-Help Housing Rehabilitation Program to help eligible homeowners with necessary home repairs and ADA accommodations. Once the program’s funded was spent, the program was discontinued; however, it served as a precursor for our Select Home Services program in 2020.

Our 75th home was built in Pocatello, Idaho. By its completion, we referred to the above programs collectively as Asset Development programs.

Our 91st home, located in Soda Springs, Idaho, was the last home we built before the COVID-19 pandemic, which forced the program’s hiatus in 2020. Despite that, we broke ground at Alpine Crossing later that year to champion the need for affordable housing in our area. We relaunched the program simply as Self-Help Housing in 2024.

Alpine Crossing

Alpine Crossing is a 56-lot site approximately 11.65 acres in size off Philbin Rd. in Chubbuck, Idaho. It’s a one-of-a-kind project for us – we’re handling everything from road construction to landscaping. With our homes mixed throughout the subdivision, and its location one mile out from Chubbuck’s business hub, Alpine Crossing is an ideal place to live for participants and non-participants alike.