As the Housing Programs Director with Interfaith Housing Services, Inc. I have decided to share the adventure of our first build through the eyes of our families and the employees helping make dreams come true.
First a little background:
In January of 2014, Interfaith Housing Services was awarded the USDA 523 T & TA Grant to oversee the building of 18 homes. As with any new program you never know what you are getting into until you are there. As for me, I knew it was a calling to make an impact on the community.
The Mutual Self Help Housing Program allows families to work together to build their homes. Utilizing sweat equity to reduce the price of the homes this allows families from low to moderate income to achieve the American Dream of owning their own home. After several months of recruiting we are excited to help four families dreams come true.
On September 22nd all the families came together for the first time. Each family met with USDA to go over documents and were able to see the housing plans for the very first time.
On October 15th we will begin moving dirt to start the foundation work on three homes in South Hutchinson and one home in Partridge. October 20th we will have a ground breaking ceremony in South Hutchinson.
Quote from one of our families regards to the ground breaking ceremony:
"We are so excited! My son even made me buy him a
miniature shovel and tool kit, he wants to help"
One family has agreed to share their excitement, fears, and challenges during the course of the build. I am proud to introduce Steve and Michelle Dixon and family.
Michelle shares her words below:
Our Family
Hello, I’m Michelle and this is my
husband Steve, son Konnor, daughter Natalie, and our baby girl Brynn is due in
November. This is the story of how we became
homeowners with the help of Interfaith Housing, the CA$H Program, and the
Mutual Self-Help Housing program. We moved to Hutchinson from eastern Michigan
almost three years ago. When we first arrived in Hutchinson, we did not have
our own place to live and neither Steve nor I had a job. We lived in my mom’s
spare bedroom for our first six months in Kansas. During April of 2012, Steve
got a job, we found a small home to rent, and we were happy to discover that we
were expecting our second child, Natalie. I found a part-time job while I was
pregnant, but quit shortly after my daughter was born in order to stay home and
take care of the kids. As of today, we are still renting the same small home.
Wanting to own a home
Since we started dating back in
2005, Steve and I had either lived in Student Housing in college, or rented an
apartment or house. Rent is expensive and renting doesn't provide the freedom and
investment that owning a home does. We always wanted to own our own home, but
thought that it wouldn't be possible because of several reasons, one being that we couldn't save up a 20% down payment. Our family continued to grow, but we couldn't afford to rent a big enough house to hold us all. I had heard of some
federal and state programs that could help people with down payment assistance,
so during an Open House, I asked a Realtor if she had any information about the
programs, but she told me that those kinds of programs didn't exist anymore or
were difficult to get. I decided it was at least worth looking in to further because
we had nothing to lose.
Realtor
We knew we wanted to buy a home,
but had no clue where to start. Some friends of ours had recently purchased
their home using government assistance programs, so we asked them if they could
refer us to their Realtor. A very nice and helpful woman spoke with us about
all of the different programs that we could take advantage of. She explained that some Realtor either aren't aware of the programs, or don’t like to bother with all of the paperwork
involved. She told us about the Mutual Self-Help program, the CA$H program, and
others. At the time, we wanted to own a home as quickly as possible, so we weren't interested in building our own home. We decided to sign up for the CA$H
program and touch base with her again after we had taken the class.
CA$H Program
The CA$H program had just finished
a class the week before we called. We had to wait a few months before there was
another class we could attend. Finding childcare was a challenge, but I’m glad
we did because the CA$H program was worth it! We both really enjoyed the class
and learned a lot. It helped us learn how to prioritize our goals and save
money. It was nice to be in a room full of other people who were in our shoes
and wanted to own a home, but needed help with a down payment. During class, we
heard Julia Westfahl speak about the Mutual Self-Help program again. I thought
it sounded great on paper, but wasn't too interested. I felt that buying an
older home was going to be challenging enough and building a new one would be
impossible. I could tell by they look on Steve’s face however, that he had
suddenly become very interested in the program! After a lot of discussion,
prayer, and speaking with family and friends, we decided that the pros of the
Mutual Self-Help program outweighed the cons. We would have a brand new house
that didn't require any fixing up or major repairs, that would be energy
efficient, and would be located in a small town. We eventually just decided, how could we not
take advantage of this amazing program, even if it was somewhat scary at first?
It would almost be stupid to not do it!
Mutual Self Help Program
It’s been almost a nine months
since we decided to build our own home using the Mutual Self Help Program. We
haven’t even broke ground yet and the process has already been a wild ride,
full of emotional ups and downs.
-Applications, Paperwork, and
Getting Approved
-Finding Lots and Choosing a Floor
Plan
-Fears, Hopes, Dreams, Excitement,
Disappointment, Doubts, and Faith
I want to start building already!
