Robbinsville – A project in place to alleviate some of Graham County’s housing woes took a big step forward Tuesday morning.
Ground was officially broken on the Rural Development Authority Moose Branch Subdivision Project. The development has been planned since 2014 and will include 13 slabs for low to moderate-income homes.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture Rural Development has put forward $369,500 for the subdivision, augmented by a $470,000 grant from the Dogwood Health Trust.
“We see this as probably going to be a blend of our direct loan and the guaranteed loan program,” said U.S. Department of Agriculture Rural Development Area Director Pamela Hysong. “This is the time if people are interested – the ones who want the direct loan – it would be a good time for them to maybe start working with us at least on a pre-application; let us look at their credit.
“If they have some credit issues, we can tell them how to address them prior to actually applying for a loan with us, but we’re really excited about this getting started, because there’s not much affordable housing that’s available.”
The maximum lending amount from the program is $285,000. Income limits for the direct loan program are $46,000 for families of 1-4 and $61,800 for families of 5-8.
The income limits for the guaranteed program are $91,900 for families one to four and $121,300 for families of five to eight.
Hysong said the project was first conceived by the town of Robbinsville, but eventually went to the Rural Development Authority.
Graham County Rural Development Authority Board Member Pam Shaffer said she was glad to see the board’s years of work on the project come to fruition.
“This has been a long time coming and we’re very excited to be able to provide this development to be able to help low to moderate income families in this community get a home where they might not have been able to otherwise,” Shaffer said.
“Most important is it gives local people of low and moderate-income an opportunity to actually own a hometown some property,” added Graham County Commissioner Dale Wiggins. “For the county government, it decreases our tax base, so it’s just a win-win for everybody.”