PARIS – Federal Rural Development funds are helping 13 families build their own homes in Androscoggin and Oxford counties.

The $136,500 recently awarded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture to Community Concepts Inc. will help the families finish their housing projects, said Mary Ellen Therriault, spokesperson for the regional social social services agency.

“There were extreme weather conditions during the winter, so there were additional costs,” she said.

The agency, which began the program in 1992, gets $278,000 in federal funding annually, which ordinarily pays for 13 families to build the houses.

The money provides supervisory and technical assistance to the homeowners, who must put in a major part of the “sweat equity” in doing the actual building, Therriault said. Foundation, electrical and plumbing work is done by licensed contractors.

Those participating in the program enter into a low-interest loan through Rural Development for the land and construction costs. Six people and their families help each other build the houses, working in two groups.

Sometimes the homes are part of a subdivision and located near one another, as was the case with a project completed a few years back across from the Don Gouin Athletic Complex in Paris. More often, “the houses are scattered around,” Therriault said. “People get to pick out their own lots.”

For more information about Community Concepts self-help housing program, call the agency at 743-1520 and ask to speak to Dana Stevens.