Tres Rios Habitat for Humanity selects family for new home in Aztec
Organization also has home in Bloomfield it is renovating
- A lack of applicants who met Habitat’s income limits prevented the organization from building a home in San Juan County last year for the first time in several years.
- Over the years, Tres Rios Habitat for Humanity has built 13 homes in San Juan County.
- It also has completed renovations and additions for dozens of other homes.
After a lack of qualified applicants led Tres Rios Habitat for Humanity to not build a new home in 2023 for the first time in several years, the organization is moving ahead with plans to construct a house in Aztec for a family of three, according to its leader.
Cindi Haws, the executive director of Tres Rios Habitat for Humanity, said the organization recently selected Brenda and Ricky Perez of Farmington as its newest partner and will build them a new home this year in Aztec on East Zia Street near Aztec High School. The home will be constructed on one of three lots the Christian housing ministry purchased in 2019 at considerably less than market value.
Haws said Brenda and Ricky Perez are grandparents who are raising their 8-year-old granddaughter, Rhea. The family lives in a mobile home that is in an advanced state of disrepair, with paneling coming off the walls, a leaky roof, sagging floors and inadequate access to electricity, she said.
Haws said she still needs to sit down with the organization’s construction manager, Greg Anderson, to discuss the design and plans for the home, so she doesn’t know when construction will begin. Typically, Habitat officials like to break ground on a new home in the early spring each year to assure it will be finished in time for the family to move in before the holidays. Chapter officials have said their normal construction time for a new home is six months, with most of that work being performed by volunteers and members of the recipient family.
But a lack of applicants who met Habitat’s income limits prevented the organization from building a home in San Juan County last year for the first time in several years. Haws said the Perez family qualified for the program after the local chapter received permission from national Habitat officials to relax those income standards slightly.
New homes are built to meet the needs of the families with whom the organization partners, so the lack of a qualifying family last year kept Habitat from going ahead with construction on a new house, even though it had the funding to do so, Haws said.
Over the years, Tres Rios Habitat for Humanity has built 13 homes in San Juan County while completing renovations and additions to dozens of other homes, including adding wheelchair-accessible ramps to many homes whose owners have a disability.
Haws said if the organization can find another qualifying family this year and the circumstances prove to be a good match, it could move them into a home in Bloomfield that Habitat acquired last year and is rebuilding. It features a vaulted ceiling in the living room and sits on a lot that already has several large, mature trees on it — both of which are features that Habitat homes typically don’t have, she has said.
Haws said that house now has three bedrooms, but it potentially could be converted into a five-bedroom home to accommodate a large family. The project is on hold until a qualifying family is identified and can participate in the design process, she said.
Previously:Work begins on San Juan County's 13th Habitat for Humanity home
Families that qualify for a Habitat home are allowed to purchase the house at no interest and no profit for the organization, making them much more affordable than other new homes. They also are expected to perform a specified amount of volunteer labor — referred to as “sweat equity” — while their home or another Habitat home is being constructed.
The organization is planning its annual car show fundraiser from 4 to 9 p.m. on Saturday, Aug. 31 on Main Street in downtown Farmington.
To apply for the program, visit tresrioshabitat.com.
Mike Easterling can be reached at 505-564-4610 ormeasterling@daily-times.com. Support local journalism with a digital subscription: http://bit.ly/2I6TU0e.