Sisters Habitat ramps up for big 2011

Sisters Habitat for Humanity has had good reason to celebrate the advent of 2011.

Last week, staff and volunteers moved the chapter's ReStore secondhand appliance and furniture outlet out of the decrepit former city hall building on Fir Street into a former warehouse facility at 254 W. Adams Ave. (next to Sisters Art Works). The new facility doubles the space available, which will help the chapter sell more goods, according to Executive Director Sharlene Weed.

Weed thanked property owner Juliana Pachuca and Realtor Patty Vandiver for making the move work.

In its third year of operation, ReStore provides about $60,000 for Habitat operations, Weed reported.

Those operations are in much stronger shape thanks to major land purchases by the local chapter, which provides the opportunity of home ownership to families who otherwise would not be able to participate in the market.

Sisters Habitat recently closed on five lots in Timber Creek at $29,500 each. Funding came from federal stimulus money through the Neighborhood Stabilization Program (NSP2), administered through the City of Bend.

The stimulus funds were restricted to the purchase of bank-owned properties.

Homes will be 1,400 square feet with a two-car garage to conform with Timber Creek CCRs. Families will hold the second mortgage with the City of Bend for the land cost at zero interest, deferred for the life of mortgage.

The chapter is also pending on 17 lots in Village Meadows, between The Pines and the churches to the west. Transactions are scheduled to close on January 28.

Weed noted that Habitat received key help from Realtor Annie Andreson in making the purchase happen.

Habitat is paying for the properties with a $135,000 grant from Meyer Memorial Trust; a $135,000 loan from Meyer Memorial Trust; a $100,000 loan from Oregon Housing and Community Services and $191,000 proceeds of sale of its Adams Avenue property (site of the community garden).

"With the normal fundraising we do on an annual basis, we'll be able to pay off those loans," Weed said.

The large group of lots will, in effect, create a "Habitat neighborhood," a situation chapters generally try to avoid.

"We like to integrate," Weed said. "It's a compromise. I don't necessarily like it, but that's what we're doing."

The benefits of the action override integration concerns. The transactions will leave the chapter with a total of 27 lots - a nine-year inventory at their traditional build rate serving three families per year.

Families are encouraged to apply to become Habitat homeowners.

Land acquisition has long been a challenge for Habitat, with desirable lots often too expensive to purchase while keeping within the parameters required to keep homes affordable. Three years ago Habitat paid $550,000 for five lots in what the chapter named Hammond Place. Even at approximately $20,000 below market, Weed noted, the chapter was paying $110,000 per lot and then spent about $20,000 per lot in infrastructure.

Under the current circumstances, Weed said, "the land and the house will be under what we were paying for just the land."

The flood of foreclosures after the crash of the regional real estate market has opened up possibilities that simply did not exist before.

"To me, I guess it's the silver lining of this horrible economy," Weed said. "Maybe something good can come out of this. "

Author Bio

Jim Cornelius, Editor in Chief

Jim Cornelius is editor in chief of The Nugget and author of “Warriors of the Wildlands: True Tales of the Frontier Partisans.” A history buff, he explores frontier history across three centuries and several continents on his podcast, The Frontier Partisans. For more information visit www.frontierpartisans.com.

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