A dedication ceremony is happening tonight in Rifle at the Wapiti Commons housing project. Habitat for Humanity President Gail Schwartz describes the organization’s hopes and priorities with the new townhomes:
"To be a Wapiti homeowner, uh, we work with families that are employed in the community to help them buy homes and live affordably. And that's what makes it special for Habitat to now add more homes to Rifle. We already have 21 homes between Rifle and Silt. More homes to Rifle. To support that community, their health care, their education, their, their commercial services, et cetera.
So the individuals that we are going to be closing on, one is an elementary school teacher. I believe she's a kindergarten teacher and could not have had more support from her community and from the, the, uh, uh, the Rifle School District. And she has actually been living at home with her parents. What we ask of each Habitat family is they contribute what we call sweat equity with themselves or families and friends to help build the homes or help support Habitat.
So, uh, this, this teacher has had more teachers come alongside and families and friends. It's been a very exciting process for her. As they're so supportive of the fact she will now have her own home. Next, we have another young mother with a two year old son and she works in healthcare. She currently is also living with her family and will be now having her own home with her son, which is a very exciting for these professionals in the community.
Part of our community or the fabric of our community having their own homes and really launched for their success in the future. Lastly, we're, we're. I'm really excited. We have an individual that actually has been, uh, with the Habitat build team. And this individual has been with us for five years, head of our siding crew.
And he has two young sons. And he is a single dad. And he will be moving from a trailer he shares with another individual. But this is the challenge, oftentimes, either not having your own space, but secondly, that trailer has about a utility cost of about $500 a month. And when we are building net zero homes for these individuals, their utilities will be about $14 a month.
That's what we experience with our homes in Basalt, our homes in Rifle. So that's true affordability. Affordable mortgages, and then also affordable utilities."
The homes in Habitat’s neighborhood are benefitting community members spanning multiple generations and stages of life. The ceremony is held from 5 to 7pm at the Wapiti Commons neighborhood, and all are welcome.
