‘From the Ground Up'

Within a month, Marisela Guerrero and her family will move into a home they helped build "from the ground up."

As part of the Self Help Housing Program, families like Guerrero's can work with as many as nine other families and construction trainers to help build homes for themselves and others.

The first of its kind in the Rio Grande Valley, the program celebrated the construction of their 100th home Thursday at the Inwood Subdivision. Guerrero's family is the owner of that home.

"This is my house, this is my dream come true," Guerreo said."This is actually a dream come true for all of our families."

The Community Development Corporation of Brownsville in partnership with the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs makes the housing project possible for low-income families, according to the program's press release.

Families work with each other 40 to 45 hours a week for six to nine months on the construction of their homes.

"At the end of the project, you are going to have 10 great friends or 10 beautiful enemies," jokes Nick Mitchell-Bennett, deputy executive director for the city's community development corporation.

Calling the project a "tremendous labor of love," Mitchell-Bennett said the families' labor earns them the down payment for their homes. The family also receives $60,000 in zero percent loan funds and low interest mortgage funds to cover the cost of homes valued at $80,000 to $85,000 on the open market.

"We like to think that these homes are better than the private contractor homes," Mitchell-Bennett said. "There's a lot of love in these homes."

Guerrero, a mother of seven, worked with five other families 40 hours a week and juggled an 8-hour job at Country Casuals clothing store while building her home.

"We went from not knowing each other to counting on each other for everything," she said. "It's hard sweat, but we love it."