A volunteer board and a ten person staff operate Self-Help. The board sets policy priorities, and Claudia Shay, the founder and executive director of Self-Help, is in charge of administrative decision making. Innovation Professional contractors teach families how to construct their own homes from the foundation to the roof and supervise the team process. By eliminating the labor costs of professional builders, Self-Help reduces the cost of a new home by 50 percent and thereby makes home ownership affordable to those who otherwise must rent, live with relatives, or are homeless. Mass construction techniques enable materials to be purchased in bulk, thus reducing costs, and allow instructors to teach and supervise one process at a time, which improves the quality of construction.
Roof lines are varied to prevent homes from looking exactly alike.
The key to success is keeping families together as a team. Thus, staff loan assistants work with their teams throughout the process and act as facilitators in group problem solving. Meetings are held before each work session to identify and resolve problems inevitable in group projects. Families move into their homes only when all homes are finished. Building Community Families are arranged into groups according to where they want to live and where they can afford to live.