It can be hard to afford or find a home, but Melissa Taveras and her family have made it work, thanks in part to a federal program supporting rural homeownership.
Last August, Taveras and her four children moved into a single-family home in Washburn, after more than five years of moving around and staying off and on with Taveras’s mom.
“It’s been very rough, but I’ve never felt so much pride in myself and my kids,” said Taveras, recounting her struggle in the wake of a divorce in 2009.
Taveras, who works at Lowe’s and is earning a degree in human services from the University of Maine Presque Isle, was able to afford the home with the help of the U.S. Department of Agriculture-Rural Development’s direct home loan program.
The federal program guarantees home loans in rural areas for low- and moderate-income buyers, including loans with no-down payments.
Since 2009, USDA Rural Development has devoted more than $2.1 billion to helping more than 16,500 Mainers and Maine families buy or keep their homes, said Virginia Manuel, the agency’s Maine state director.
“Homes are the largest investment that any of us usually make,” said Manuel, who was visiting Taveras in Washburn to mark Homeownership Month.
Taveras has lived in Washburn on and off since 2009, some of it with her mom, who also lives in the town, and some of renting — including in a home “that wasn’t very safe,” Taveras said.
Doing some online research about financing a new home, she discovered the federal home loan program and then she and her family spent a year searching for a house.
“It was hard finding a home that was up to standards,” Taveras said. Plus, the kids didn’t want to leave Washburn, where they had been going to school. “The house came on the market at the right time.”
Jason Parent, executive director of Aroostook County Action Program, which offers homeownership classes and other resources, said Taveras is a good example of persistence paying off.
“We’re seeing an increase in participation in our homeownership classes,” he said. “We want to ensure not only that people get into homes, but get into homes that are safe, weatherized and comfortable.”
