Yellow Springs Home Inc. is planning to expand its affordable housing repair services.
This comes after the nonprofit joined the Dayton Home Repair Network and obtained more than $1.2 million in grants to support home repairs for low-income homeowners.
Yellow Springs Home Inc. will now embark on projects in Dayton and Yellow Springs supporting HVAC, roof replacements, accessibility, mold remediation, window replacements, plumbing and electrical work.
"We have done over 70 of these projects and we have 50 in the pipeline," said Executive Director of Home Inc. Emily Seibel. "We've been strengthening partnerships and internal systems and efficiencies to be able to manage the growing complexity and scale, and we are delighted that we now get to bring over a million dollars into the Dayton region for this program."
Seibel said so far they have rehabbed or developed 48 affordable homes in Yellow Springs alone, which house over 25 children in the community.
“Our client first services includes support service coordination for renters, pre and post purchase support for homeowners, usually first time homeowners of low income," she said. "And then our home repair grants and other services reach over 75 households per year."
Nearly 3 decades of affordable housing
Seibel said the organization's capacity has increased since its inception in 1998, now operating on a $1 million budget with about $6 million in community assets.
"Mostly land, some rental development, but that's really the heart of what we do is the community land trust affordable housing development," she said.
They recently obtained funding from Huntington National Bank, the USDA Rural Development Housing grant, the Kettering Fund, the Yellow Springs Community Foundation and for their expansion efforts.
This expansion is also a reflection of the organization's five-year strategic goals which include completing an affordable senior housing project called the Cascades, strengthening community and diversity in Yellow Springs through partnerships and creating a community land trust housing development pipeline.
"The fourth is to clarify our client-first programs, including an expansion of major home repair grants," said Seibel. "Then the last one is cultivating the capacity to thrive because a lot of times in this environment we feel like we're all surviving but we think we also want to thrive."
'When it happens you don't know what to do'
A 77-year-old became one of Home Inc's repair clients after he fell through the floor in his spare bedroom.
Carlos Landaburu moved to Columbus from Argentina before settling at his current home in Yellow Springs.
He said the organization set him up with local contractors to fix long-term water damage and repair the structural integrity of his home after the incident.
"Our work is really about strengthening the fabric of our communities by working with individual households."
"This is something that may happen once in a lifetime to anybody, so when it happens you don't know what to do," he said. "Like if your car breaks you know who you can go to, right? But if there's a problem like this I mean what do you do? Initially I thought the house could be doomed, it had to be condemned, because sometimes the fixing is just too expensive."
But he was aware of the work being done at Home Inc. which prompted him to reach out for help finding repair services in the area.
“I think on my own, it would have been very hard for me to find, to gather all that information," he said. "Find the right contractors, and go ahead and do whatever needed to be done.”
The organization helped Landaburu repair the damage to his home and install impervious material to avoid future water damage.
Landaburu said he has also worked to educate himself to further prevent any water damage going forward.
Seibel said this kind of work displays the organization’s ongoing efforts to stabilizes households and allow residents to maintain affordability through education and local support.
"Our work is really about strengthening the fabric of our communities by working with individual households," she said. "Everyone is connected. And so really our vision is about strengthening community."
