9/20/2011 4:05:00 PM
Habitat For Humanity More Than Lives Up To The Name
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KEN WOODLEY
Editor
The USDA made a Grade A prime choice linking up with the Farmville Area Habitat For Humanity this summer.
Habitat's agreement with the USDA's Rural Development arm should become both the cornerstone and foundation of even greater expansion of housing opportunities in our community.
The Memorandum Of Understanding (MOU) inked in June to create the new partnership will increase the effective capabilities of each-and both are already without peer when it comes to expanding housing opportunities for those who would otherwise have no place to turn for the kind of housing for which Habitat and Rural Development are the bridge.
Particular hats off to our Farmville Area Habitat For Humanity because its volunteers and staff already push themselves to the limit to make more than the most of their resources. They could be genuinely content, and deservedly so, with the level of housing achievement that is their trademark year after year, family after family. Clearly, their passion for enabling families to achieve the dream of owning their own home, and a home worth owning, is what is driving them toward even higher levels of committed service to others.
Well and truly done to these ladies and gentlemen, for whom the expression "There's no place like home" is a cry from the heart, not a cliché.
The new partnership will provide housing mortgage assistance to participants in the Habitat program, allowing the Farmville Area Habitat For Humanity to extend the reach of its funding dollars to more potential homeowners. The teaming of Rural Development and the Farmville Area Habitat for Humanity will bridge the gap between Habitat's traditional clientele and Rural Development's direct lending program, and that is 100 percent financing to rural Americans in either a very-low or low-income category.
Anne E. E. Herring, Area Director with the USDA's Rural Development office in Lynchburg, told The Herald following the MOU-signing that, "this will help them to be able to purchase more. It will be able to help Habitat sell more and hopefully bridge that gap together so our folks will be able to purchase, in many cases, a lower-priced home," she explained, "and Habitat will be able then to generate that much-needed revenue to keep their program going, so they can build even more houses and expand out of the immediate area where they seem to have concentrated. So we're real excited about it."
The coverage area for the MOU will find the Farmville Area Habitat For Humanity and Rural Development furthering home ownership opportunities in Farmville, Prince Edward County, southern Cumberland, Buckingham and Charlotte Counties.
There really is no place like home and thanks to the Farmville Area Habitat For Humanity there are more places that are home for our families. The partnership with Rural Development will help this worthy organization open more doors to that dream come true.
-JKW-
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