Self Help Housing

Self help house building alive with government and community assistance

By Frank Bradley
Sentinel writer

At a time when a record number of families across the country are losing their homes, six families in western North Carolina have broken ground to build a home of their own by helping each other. They also are getting help from the government, the community and the Hinton Rural Life Center.
On Tuesday, a ground breaking was held at Wesley Meadows, a housing development in Warne where already a dozen families are living in homes they helped build. They too were enabled to get home ownership through governmental grants, volunteer labor and pitching in to do a lot of the work for themselves. Some of these homeowners were at Tuesday’s groundbreaking. Charles Lee Penland, who oversees the housing project called them “our pioneer home owners. We learned from them,” he said.
Pam Bryson, a mother of six children, a grandmother of seven and a great-grandmother, will be starting work on her new house, which is now nothing more than an empty lot.
“I’ve never owned a home before,” she said. “This is exciting.”
Bryson, who lives in Murphy, said she learned about the project from a friend of hers whose brother lives at Wesley Meadows, and who had participated in the development’s second phase.
“Initiallly, I was reluctant to apply for this program because I didn’t think I would be eligible,” she said. “But finally I applied and they helped me through the steps to be qualified.”
Penland called last year a long year. “It was a hard year,” he said. “At times we weren’t sure our program was going to make it. But we did. We survived. The Hinton Center carried our program for a year. And we are pleased that they continued to believe in us. This is truly a community project, and I want to thank everyone who had a part in it.”
Rufus Stark, former- chairman of the Hinton Center board of directors, said, “I am delighted that we can continue to build again.”
He said that public servants are elected to establish programs like this to help people, but he added that nothing happens with these programs until somebody in the local community steps up to pick up the pieces and make things happen. He called it an opportunity for people of faith to be involved.
Pam Hysong, who is the acting area director for the USDA Rural Development, presented several oversized checks. Among them was one for $774,000 representing the monies that will be going for building supplies and appliances for the six houses. It was pointed out that this money will be spent locally. Another check for $308,019 was presented to the Hinton Center for administrative costs of overseeing the construction of both these six houses and another five houses expected to be started next fall.
Hysong said the construction of these new homes will benefit the county by adding to its tax base and it will benefit the families involved not only by providing them a home to live in, but also the opportunity of learning new building skills and will increase the participants self-confidence.
Hysong also presented the Hinton Center with another check for $50,000, which is a grant to oversee housing preservation. Julia Buckner, who oversees that program for the Hinton Center, said it would provide materials for the repair of five houses in the area, work which will be done by matching volunteer labor. To provide homeowners whose homes are in bad need of repair with housing that is decent, safe and sanitary.
Jason Reinhardt, manager of Mountain Building Supply in Hayesville, presented the project with a check for $5,000 to help offset the cost of tools. This is the third time the company has provided the Wesley Meadows project with such funds.
Of the families who are participating in building the six new houses, three are from Clay County, two from Cherokee County and one from Young Harris, Georgia. Laura Pegues, Lynn Sanchez and Barron Martin families are from Clay; Pat Bryson and Marcus and Lisa Carroll with four children are from Murphy and John Griffith and family are from Young Harri