Habitat has run out of building sites

After 14 years of helping Sisters residents acquire their own homes, Sisters Habitat for Humanity has stopped accepting applications. The reason? When construction starts next month on a Habitat house on North Locust Lane the organization will have no more land available for building, according to Sharlene Weed, executive director of Sisters Habitat for Humanity.

“For the past four years, we have enjoyed having available land on which to build houses, about 14 properties in all,” Weed explained. “Most of these lots were purchased at below market prices with the seller receiving a tax benefit for their contribution. However, at this point, our ‘land bank’ is just about finished, so we are no longer accepting new applications from families.”

Habitat is not just faced with the escalating cost of property; the major problem has been finding any land that they can acquire.

“We have inventoried the city, written letters to property owners and made phone calls to owners. So far, we have not uncovered anything that we can purchase,” Weed said, “We are willing to buy property, but there isn’t any to buy. We are willing to look at any property owned by someone interested in selling.”

Habitat is also interested in finding a larger piece of property within the city that they could develop, she added.

To date, Habitat has restricted their property purchases within the City of Sisters because of larger minimum lot sizes outside of Sisters, expensive lots in major subdivisions and the fact that they can build townhouses within the city.

Habitat does own a piece of property on Adams Avenue, but since it was acquired, the property has been rezoned as commercial. Therefore, instead of building three townhouses on the lot, there must now have an element of commercial use on the property mixed with the housing.

“We are not sure if we want to put a family there or if we would be satisfied with providing condo housing,” Weed said.

The value of the common-wall houses that have been sold by Habitat is about $80,000, with the land value being about $30,000, she explained. However, with land values increasing to as much as $240,000 a lot, that makes the land value for each of the townhouses $120,000, four times what has been experienced in the past.

Looking to the future, Weed sees some relief. Commitments have made by several local developers to work with Habitat in providing land at an affordable cost, but that may be two or more years off, she said.

“Here in Sisters, our goal has been to build four houses a year,” Weed said. “There have been some years that we have built more. One year we built our Thrift Store building, but we still completed two houses that year.”

Seven families have been selected as qualifying, but only two will find housing with the new construction to start next month, Weed added.

Since Sisters Habitat for Humanity was established in 1991, the organization has sold affordable houses to 36 families. Volunteers working under the supervision of professional builders built the houses. The houses were sold at no profit to the organization, financed by 20- to 30-year no-interest mortgages.

The volunteer board of directors selects homebuyers based on specific criteria. This includes the family’s need for shelter, the ability to make mortgage payments, the willingness to partner with the organization, and the family’s inability to qualify for conventional mortgage due to income. Homeowner families agree to invest 500 “sweat equity” labor hours in Habitat projects before occupying their homes.

Funds for building come from donations by individuals, churches, organizations, foundations, and proceeds from Habitat’s Thrift Store established in 1997.

Habitat for Humanity International was established in Georgia in 1976 and now operates in all 50 states and 100 countries. The organization has built more than 175,000 houses worldwide. The organization gained major attention when former President Jimmy Carter and his wife Rosalynn began serving as volunteers in 1984.

For more information, call 549-1193.