Habitat housing families at record rate

Dawn Roberts breaks ground. photo by Torri Barco

Sisters Habitat for Humanity continues to house families in Sisters at a record pace.

The affiliate celebrated Sunday, June 29 at two new homes on N. Maple Lane for two single mothers and their families.

Candy Parks, a single mother who works at Ray's Food Place to support her 10-year-old twin sons, County and Canyon, lost her house when she and her husband divorced.

She shoveled dirt with a smile on her face next to her Habitat for Humanity co-worker and neighbor-to-be, Dawn Roberts -- another single mother who will soon become a first-time home owner.

Parks and Roberts are two of six families to be housed by Habitat for Humanity this summer -- a record number for the local organization in such a short period. The completion of all six houses will bring a 26 percent increase in the houses provided by Sisters Habitat for Humanity in its 12 years of existence.

The spurt of home completions will add to last year's outstanding rate, when Sisters Habitat for Humanity won an award from Habitat for Humanity International for building the most houses in Oregon of any Habitat affiliate of its size in 2002, according to Carolyn Gabrielson, president of the Sisters affiliate.

The 150-plus Habitat volunteers completed four homes that year.

"It feels good to do things for people knowing it helps people who would probably never be able to get a house and they are getting houses and so are we," Parks said.

The quick supply of houses was partly made possible because Deschutes River Ranch donated the two Maple Lane houses, along with two houses they donated on Locust Street last September, said Sharlene Weed, Executive Director of Sisters Habitat. The three-bedroom, wood houses were built in the 1970s and were moved from their former location along the river.

The houses on Maple Lane are still due for interior and exterior renovations, including new walls, and are slated for completion by the end of September.

Three of the new houses are being built entirely by Habitat volunteers. Those one-bedroom, 850-square-foot homes will house single women on St. Helens Street around the end of August.

"To be able to provide six families in a short time is exciting," Weed said. "It represents hundreds and hundreds of volunteer hours and a lot of the people don't have to help. They want to and they have a heart for it. It makes me want to cry."

Habitat staff selects residents each year to purchase a home. Applicants must live and/or work in the Sisters School District, meet income requirements and complete 500 volunteer hours through Habitat before they are eligible to purchase the home.

Besides affordable homes, Habitat staff and volunteers say the benefit of volunteering is meeting friends and becoming a part of a community.

Dawn Roberts completed her 500 required volunteer hours in March, but still volunteers at the Habitat for Humanity Thrift Store and job sites on Tuesdays and Saturdays.

"It's worth it," she said. "I'm still giving back."