COLUMBIA FALLS – It didn’t take long for Katie Miller’s kids to run up the stairs and pick out their rooms. Or what color to paint them. And last Friday the kids were running around the newly built townhouse on Mitchell Way.
Miller and her two young children were one of two families about to move into a townhouse, the first of a 16-home development being built by Habitat for Humanity of Flathead Valley in Columbia Falls. And even if there was still some sawdust in the corners, it already felt familiar.
“It’s getting there,” Miller said. “Once we started putting color into it, it started to feel like home.”
The townhouse, containing two homes, represented the 34th and 35th homes built by the local Habitat for Humanity group since 1989, according to director Chris Hyatt. The compact piece of land in Columbia Falls is the first development to be built by the local chapter, after primarily focusing on single-family homes for the last two decades. Hyatt said developments are the group’s long-term goal.
“They talk about going from a home builder to a community developer,” Hyatt said.
Hyatt said the land for the development was acquired in the spring and the townhouse, as with every Habitat for Humanity project, was built entirely by volunteers, including hours put in by the families about to move in. When they do move in, they pay a $500-a-month, 30-year mortgage with zero percent interest.
Each family moving into the new townhouse had to meet four requirements, including a willingness to partner with the group, the ability to pay and residency in the area for a year. Their current housing also had to be unsafe or unsuitable or its costs exceeded 40 percent of the family’s annual income.
Miller, who moved to the Flathead Valley from California in 2009, has lived in four apartments and with various relatives. Miller applied for housing with the local chapter earlier this year.
“It’s very exciting,” she said. “This whole process has been awesome and the volunteers have blown me away.”
One of the primary partners in building the townhouse was Thrivent Financial for Lutherans. Daren Skonord, a financial representative for the nonprofit group, said the Thrivent donated funds and local Lutheran churches donated many of the 7,000 man-hours needed to build the townhouse. Skonord said it’s a chance to give back to the community.
“Being a nonprofit means we don’t have to pay taxes and that means those dollars go back to the community,” he said.
Hyatt said Habitat for Humanity hopes to have four more townhouses completed at the development by the end of next year and 16 homes done by December 2015.