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Homes for Islanders move-in ceremony
HOUSING/HEALTH NEWS
By Art Seavey, rural development specialist, housing
New homeowners, Homes for Islanders (HFI) staff, and a good showing of family, friends, neighbors and supporters gathered at Rosario Resort’s Discovery House on May 5 to honor the completion of eight homes on Orcas Island.
HFI is a non-profit organization that works within San Juan County to provide affordable housing under U.S. Department of Agriculture — Rural Development’s (USDA-RD) self-help program. The self-help program allows low-income homebuyers to use “sweat equity” as their down payment and offers low-interest loans to qualified participants. By supplying the labor to build their own homes, residents lower the purchase price to an affordable amount. HFI provides application assistance, house plans, builder-ready lots, subcontractors and budgeting aid. Justin Roche, Executive Director of HFI, explained to the crowd of close to 100 well wishers how the families each had to devote a minimum of 35 hours per week, for about a year to build all the homes in the group on Orcas Island, adding that no one moves in until all the homes are completed.
"You are the ones who succeeded here."
~ Mario Villanueva, USDA State Director
Roche noted that there were no drop-outs among the team, even though each owner/builder seemed to hit a roadblock, at some point in the construction. Yet, in each situation a different person stepped up to pick up the slack and get the group through the task at hand.
Mario Villaneuva, USDA State Director, said to the crowd of nearly 100, “Wow! What a great display of community support. Self Help represents the best of America, and the advantages of economic success we’re trying to achieve in America. You are the ones who succeeded here.” Villaneuva went on to say “working with strategic partners is key to making this successful. It’s profound what you’ve accomplished.”
Angela Rausch, San Juan County affordable housing coordinator, congratulated HFI for successfully completing another housing development saying, “hard working families should be able to afford housing and still have enough money left over for necessities like food and medicine. We have the highest housing prices and some of the lowest wages, which makes San Juan County the least affordable county in the state.”
Rausch noted that the county’s Housing Needs Assessment projected a future need for over 3,400 workers to commute to the islands to meet the projected worker shortage. By putting their dollars back into the community they live in “a local workforce contributes to the social and economic well-being of our community in ways the tourists and part-time residents do not. Without affordable housing we will lose our local workforce, which will negatively affect each and every one of us”.
Two of the new homeowners—Carol Carolyn and Chad Kimple—presented the crowd with a tongue-in-cheek recognition of each of their efforts, accompanied by a slide show put together by fellow builder, Kevin DeHart, and gave several awards to their fellow owner/builders. They awarded HFI Construction Manager, Larry Coddington, with the Closed Mouth Award for not saying anything bad about anyone during the construction. They awarded Rebecca Evans the Super Finger Award for having single-handedly caulked many miles of siding and trim.
"We are grateful for this program, for the chance to afford our own American dream." - Homeowner Chad Kimple
Kimple said to those present, “We are grateful for this program, for the chance to afford our own American dream. I couldn’t have afforded a home conventionally as the payments would have been my entire monthly income. You really get to know your neighbors by swinging hammers next to them for 14 months”.
The ceremony concluded with Villanueva assisting Roche in handing over keys and a commemorative plaque to each of the happy homeowners.
To learn more about HFI and the services they offer, visit www.homesforislanders.org
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