Dear Friend of HOMES,

What a year it has been! The wide spread destruction caused by the historic July 29th flooding event is incomprehensible! At the same time, we have been blessed to receive contributions, enabling and encouraging us forward. We have been so busy with all the work and chaos that I have not had time to reach out with an update to say Thank You! This letter is meant to serve that purpose, I hope it gives you a sense that your contributions have enabled us to do so much good work in just 4 months. I thought you might be encouraged to hear some of the good work that your contributions helped us to accomplish.

New Houses: We are nearing the completion of our second new home since the flood. The family identified to purchase this home is a retired couple who lost nearly everything they owned in the flood. My heart went out to this family when I met them at the location of their old home. They were overwhelmed and at a loss of knowing what to do next. Being in retirement the thoughts of a new 30-year mortgage to purchase another house was heart breaking. When they learned that they would be good candidates for our first “Housing Can’t Wait” funded house the sense of relief and hope was evident. If everything goes well this family will be in their home before Christmas! The HOMES crew is currently working on 8 additional new houses with others in the pipeline.

Rentals: The need for permanent housing in the form of rental housing is large and looming. Since the flood HOMES has renovated 5 dilapidated vacant properties to like new condition, adding them to our available rental housing. We gave displaced flood survivors priority on our rental waiting list. Since the flood we have rented 10 houses to flood survivors. Some of these families have been living in campers, going from house to house or living with extended family until they were able to rent a house from HOMES.

Renovations: Turning the corner from relief work to rebuilding we have a lot of opportunities to help flood survivors build back after the flood. Two properties had foundations wiped out from a huge landslide which caused severe damage to the properties forcing one of the families to vacate their home until the foundation could be restored. Another family we are assisting had seven feet of water in their home and their house was not even in the flood plain!

Misc: We have had many new opportunities to help families in new ways. We have completed more than 30 contractor estimates that flood survivors can use to appeal the original Fema awards. Working with Catholic Charities we have referred 23 families for new HVAC installations.

We have coordinated the donation of materials and Mennonite Disaster Relief Volunteers to build new landing and stairs at the State’s temporary camper shelter park in Whitesburg and Jenkins.

Deck and Stairs built with donation from Catholic Charities and volunteer labor from Mennonite Disaster Relief.

We estimate that we have served well over 250 people since August. With all of this progress there is still so much to do in our region. Your support enables us to focus on the rebuilding effort before us while being flexible to meet unique needs as they arise. I often sum up our work after the flood by saying the crisis is large and difficult to manage but so are the new opportunities flowing from this event. My hope is that we can address problems in a way that our community is better off after the flood than we were before. The work we have been able to complete is your work. Through your contributions you have enabled us to do this! Thank you for all of your support this year!

Seth Long,

Executive Director

Homes, Inc.