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!