The Quaker service organization, the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC), built the first organized self-help housing community in Appalachia in the 1930's. Thirty years later, the organization planted the roots for organized self-help housing as a national program when it helped families in the poor community of Goshen, located in the heart of California's San Joaquin Valley. The success of the first 20 families led to AFSC's decision to create an organization that would continue to channel resources into the San Joaquin Valley.

In February 1965, Self-Help Enterprises (SHE) was incorporated as the first rural self-help housing organization in the nation. The goal of SHE continues to be improving the living conditions of low-income people in the San Joaquin Valley by developing affordable housing and access to adequate water delivery and wastewater disposal systems, and providing related services.