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Federal Funding Cuts for Rural Home Building Assistance in Utah

A federal program to help rural residents construct their own homes is facing funding cuts. UPR's Kerry Bringhurst tells us administrators of the program in Cache and Box Elder Counties are worried cuts to the national program could harm future home owners.

Kim Datwyler is Executive Director of the Neighborhood Nonprofit Housing Corporation. She helps administer funds from the federal government for the program:

"You can spend about $7,000 to put a person in a home using tax payer money to make them homeowners which they then pay back with their mortgage or you can pay about $7,000 each year to help someone with rental assistance. And it doesn't take a mathematical genius to figure out that we're better off using one-time money and make a homeowner that's invested in the community."

Members of the U.S. House have already agreed to cut 66% of the funding for this federally subsidized program, which unlike other housing programs requires that the homeowner help construct the home.

Datwyler and representatives from other nonprofit housing organizations in Utah are asking Utah Senators Orrin Hatch and Mike Lee to join with other U.S. senators in support of the rural housing appropriations funding by signing a support letter by Wednesday.

At 14-years-old, Kerry began working as a reporter for KVEL “The Hot One” in Vernal, Utah. Her radio news interests led her to Logan where she became news director for KBLQ while attending Utah State University. She graduated USU with a degree in Broadcast Journalism and spent the next few years working for Utah Public Radio. Leaving UPR in 1993 she spent the next 14 years as the full time mother of four boys before returning in 2007. Kerry and her husband Boyd reside in Nibley.