INDIAN RIVER COUNTY — A week ahead of their oldest child’s seventh birthday, a family of five received a new home.
The Bowles family got to see their $250,000 house for the first time June 3, during a dedication ceremony hosted by the nonprofit organizations that helped them find, build and finance their home.
“We’re just super thankful, and we don’t have a whole bunch, so this is life-changing, almost, you could say,” said Garrett Bowles, a land surveyor and now first-time homeowner.
Following eight months of construction, Bowles described entering their new home as “unreal but perfect,” after five years living in his mother’s house with his wife and three children, once rent got too expensive.
“We previously had an apartment in Melbourne and after a year, rent had raised up to the point where we couldn’t afford it anymore,” Bowles said. “We’ve tried numerous times finding a house that would fit our price range and everything, and it wasn’t possible.”
Habitat for Humanity, a Georgia-based nonprofit helping people find affordable housing, was the first resource Bowles tapped into and the organization made it possible for his family to secure a home in Vero Lake Estates, a large neighborhood west of Vero Beach and south of Sebastian, just east of Interstate 95.
“Habitat for Humanity is a housing ministry that has existed for the last 50 years; 36 years here in Indian River County,” said Trevor Loomis, president and CEO of Indian River Habitat for Humanity. “Locally, we’ve built nearly 600 new homes. And nearly 1,000 renovations and critical home repairs for homeowners in need.”
Among other services like home repair programs, scholarships and financing classes, Habitat for Humanity helps families, with an income less than 80% of the area’s median income, achieve home ownership.
“These are working families, teachers, your first responders, a lot of healthcare workers,” Loomis said. “Garrett is a surveyor, so he works in the building trades. So, we help working families who have, in a lot of ways, been left behind by the economy.”
The home was built with support from house sponsor Jetson TV & Appliance, and build sponsor Realtors Association of Indian River County.
For the Bowles family, the surprise came when they found their new home furnished and decorated, something unusual for homes built by Habitat for Humanity.
As part of their “build up” initiative, the iTHINK Financial Community Foundation furnished and personalized the home in partnership with the housing ministry.
“We say Habitat for Humanity builds the house and we provide the home,” said Stephen Johnson, assistant vice president of administration and marketing for the iTHINK Community Foundation.
For the past three years, Johnson’s organization has awarded a new homeowner each year with furnishings for their home.
Tailored to their interests, Levi Bowles, 6, and Owen Bowles, 4, now have individual, superhero-themed bedrooms they thanked the iTHINK team for at the dedication ceremony.
With new baby books, 1-year old Everly Bowles contented herself with enjoying a mini-sofa in her new nursery.
And their dogs have a place to stay.
“We definitely would have had to get rid of our dogs,” Bowles said. “There’s a lot of things that would have changed, but I don’t think it would have happened without (Habitat).”
How it all starts with Habitat for Humanity
Bowles’ process with Habitat for Humanity began with an online housing counseling program application where the organization evaluated the family’s needs.
Entering the Habitat house program starts with a mortgage application, Loomis said. Families are approved based on their ability to repay a mortgage, need for housing and a willingness to partner.
A minimum of 300 hours of ‘sweat equity’ follows in the form of construction work, writing thank-you-cards for donors and taking homeowner classes in preparation to finance a new house. Once 60% of those hours are completed, applicants can choose a lot and construction begins.
The house is closed once the applicants have completed their sweat equity hours and complete the paperwork for a mortgage that isn’t above 30% of the applicants’ income.
Need is growing for affordable housing
With median incomes that do not catch up with rising costs of living, Habitat for Humanity is receiving more applications in recent years, Loomis said.
“We noticed that 10 years ago … the median house could be bought for 2 1/2 to three times the median income,” he said. “That’s no longer the case. The median house price is eight times the median income.”
Access to affordable home ownership today allows children to focus on school and parents to make better financial decisions, Loomis said.
“When you’ve got housing instability, you’re living in crisis and you’re living from place to place all the time,” Loomis said. “So that’s why we think home ownership is the key.”
Inflation has also caught up to the organization, increasing the cost of their operations in the last years.
“Our cost to build one house is up 100% in four years,” Loomis said. “We can build this for about $250,000 apiece. But in 2021, it was $117,000.”
Making more partnerships and reducing operational costs are some of the strategies Loomis’ organization has put an emphasis on to keep offering the help that they do.
“They can’t afford to buy this house at market rate, so we have to sell the house at a discounted rate with a discounted interest loan in order to make that happen,” Loomis said.
Some people can afford a house but need help through the process, according to Bowles, and that is where Habitat for Humanity’s help comes in.
“They do a lot of work making it affordable for people,” Bowles said. “Without them, there’s hundreds of families that wouldn’t be able to have a home so that’s, I think, a huge part of the community.”
Adrian Jimenez-Morales is a reporter for TCPalm/ Treasure Coast Newspapers. You can reach him at adrian.jimenez@tcpalm.com.
This article originally appeared on Treasure Coast Newspapers: Florida family of 5 gets new furnished home with help from nonprofits
Reporting by Adrian Jimenez Morales, Treasure Coast Newspapers / Treasure Coast Newspapers
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By Adrian Jimenez Morales, Treasure Coast Newspapers | USA TODAY Network
