Bike & Build has chosen to fund $10,000 worth of our new Critical Home Repair Program!!!
“Bike & Build and all of our 2012 riders are pleased to inform you that we are awarding a competitive grant of $10,000 to Epicenter as part of the 2012 Bike & Build Grant Program. Congratulations! Bike & Build chose to fund your grant over many worthy applicants because our riders identified your project as having high potential to impact the affordable housing landscape in your community while involving young adults in these efforts. This contribution should be allocated for the project described in your organization’s grant application. That’s not all. Not only do our riders select our competitive grantees each year, we also empower them to each make an individual $500 donation to an affordable housing organization of their choice. Your organization has been chosen by at least one of our riders and will receive funds in addition to your competitive award listed above. We hope your organization will use this gift to further the engagement of young adults in service and/or to alleviate the affordable housing shortage in your community. You are of course welcome to use the additional $500 donation(s) for your competitive project. However, this gift is unrestricted.” -Bike & Build
In the past three years, Epicenter has witnessed that residents do not necessarily need a brand new home, but instead their existing homes need repairs. Our request for $10,000 this year would be used to establish a revolving loan fund to be used for micro-loans on critical home repairs; recipients will repay the loans at 0-2% interest (based on income) over a duration that makes the payments affordable. Now in our fourth year of operation, the Epicenter is at the cusp of becoming a major provider of affordable housing. We’ve partnered with USDA Rural Development to build the first two 502 Home Loan-funded homes in Green River, w’re building the first ever Habitat for Humanity House for over sixty-miles, and we’re working with the University of Utah’s School of Architecture + Planning students to design and build a USDA model home (with a $70,000 complete price tag target) here in Green River. The much-appreciated $10,000 from B&B this year will bring the Epicenter into a prominent, coordinated role of directly assisting in alleviating housing burdens. The revolving loan fund will be used to repair/rehabilitate homes in Green River. Repairs or renovations will alleviate these houses from the burdens they are placing on the homeowners, who otherwise see very limited options of how to repair their homes. Wheelchair accessibility or even roof and window repairs require a specific knowledge we have as architectural graduates who have spent hundreds of hours on-site at our design/build projects. A simple $1,000 repair, for instance, can mean the difference between a homeowner making a minor roof repair before it becomes a full roof replacement.
It’s a great news for homeowners in Green River! Thank you, Bike & Build!!! For more information on Bike & Build, please visit their website and donate to their amazing efforts. They’re making affordable housing projects (like Epicenter’s) happen across the entire country!!!