There is an air of excitement and thankfulness surrounding the Clark County Fuller Center for Housing and its supporters as we head into another decade.
We’re excited because of the opportunity to impact an even greater number of local, underserved families through our looming return to the Habitat For Humanity family, and thankful for how God has used our ministry during our past five impactful years with the Fuller Center for Housing. We will celebrate that transition and how God has blessed it during our annual Spring Celebration dinner on May 2 at the Derby at Windy Knoll.
Our chapter is celebrating its 30th year in existence, the first 25 of which were with Habitat. In the past five years, we’ve helped eight low-income families become homeowners and saw 10 of our partner families make final payments on their mortgage. We’ve also helped nearly a dozen local homeowners make critical home repairs they wouldn’t otherwise have been able to afford and/or were physically able to make through our new Greater Blessing program.
With the added power of Habitat’s affiliation, which has over 2,000 chapters in all 50 states and 70 countries, we’re envisioning helping even more local families realize their American Dream of home ownership.
Our home ownership program remains our flagship mission. It involves the building of new homes or remodeling of existing homes in order to make them available for purchase by low-income families or individuals who are unable to qualify for a traditional bank loan. We do it with a lot of volunteer labor and donated or discounted materials, which makes the homes more affordable. A zero-interest mortgage makes home ownership viable for our families, who have to donate at least 250 hours of volunteer time to our ministry, which we call “sweat equity.” Serving together helps build a relationship we hope will last a lifetime, even beyond the day when they make their last mortgage payment.
The Greater Blessing program helps fund critical repairs needed by a local low-income family that can’t afford it no other way and/or is physically unable to make the repair. They are encouraged to repay a zero-interest loan to cover materials only over a number of months, based on the family’s ability to pay. If they are unable to pay, they are asked to volunteer time to our organization in proportion to the cost of their materials. That way, they experience the “greater blessing” of helping another family which was in a similar predicament.
We’ve built 60 new homes in Springfield, mostly on the south part of town, in the past three decades and did nearly a dozen other remodeling projects on homes that were sold to low-income applicants. We plan to do many more in the years to come, and will continue to change our community one home and one family at a time.
For more information or to become a part of our ministry, just call (937) 325-2514.
Kermit Rowe | Church and Partner Family Relations Manager
Fuller Center for Housing
https://clarkcountyfullercenter.org/
