PORT ANGELES — The first home in a Habitat for Humanity subdivision has been presented to a Port Angeles family hoping to move in before Christmas.
A group of 50 volunteers, organizers and friends gathered for Sunday’s house dedication and cheered when the home at 1626 Maloney Court was presented, blessed and turned over to Delta and Jarrett Shore, and Delta’s daughter Katelyn, 19.
Delta said the family can move in after it receives an occupancy certificate from the city of Port Angeles, which could arrive any day.
“Then we can start making our house a home,” Delta said.
The family was presented with a symbolic key to their new home by Maitland Peet, Habitat for Humanity of Clallam County executive director, and their first housewarming gift — a set of quilts for each bed in the house — from the Sunbonnet Sue Quilters club.
The key and quilts symbolize a home that is warm and clean, Jarrett said.
The Shore family currently lives in a home that has no insulation, resulting in high heating costs and very little warmth, and has mold problems, he said.
Delta, 39, is a food specialist at Olympic Medical Center in Port Angeles.
Jarrett, 36, is a student at Peninsula College, and suffers from spinal stenosis, a serious disease of the backbone that causes a narrowing of the spinal column and pressure on the spine.
The two have put 475 hours work into their three-bedroom, two-bath house, a contribution known as “sweat equity.”
The house was built mostly by volunteer hands, from the electrical system to plumbing, Peet said.
It is the 22nd home Habitat for Humanity has built in Clallam County since it incorporated 20 years ago.
“It’s been a little more than one house a year,” Peet said.
Habitat offers people who cannot afford homes help in acquiring clean, decent places to live.
Thousands of man-hours are volunteered by individuals from many groups, including applicants for future Habitat homes, friends and members of the area Lutheran church, Peet said.
“It takes a village to put a house together,” he said.
Habitat homeowners pay back the cost of their housing materials through a no-interest mortgage that typically lasts 20 to 30 years.
Their mortgage payments go into a revolving Fund for Humanity that is used to build more houses.
The Shores’ new one-story home sits on the very back lot of Maloney Heights subdivision, located on West 16th Street, and is currently the only house in the Habitat for Humanity development.
It has tile and hardwood floors, as well as a large front patio.
But the most special feature of the home is that it belongs to them, Jarrett said.
“I can add to the garden if I want to,” he said.
Delta led volunteers and supporters on a tour through the currently empty home, welcoming many of her friends with hugs and receiving many well-wishes.
The house was blessed by Rev. Jason Noble, of the Lighthouse Christian Center, with an invocation by Pastor Jack Anderson, of the Dungeness Valley Lutheran Church.
Fourteen additional homes are planned in Maloney Heights.
So far only the street and a rain garden have been completed, as the organization awaits qualified families and funding for the other homes.
The home was funded by a combination of grants and loans, including 35 percent pledged by Habitat for Humanity and 55 percent from the national Thrivent for Lutherans group, with an additional 10 percent pledged by the local Thrivent for Lutherans chapter.
By partly funding the Shore home, Thrivent’s contribution will allow Habitat for Humanity to fund an extra home later, said Anne Anderson, the area program manager for Thrivent.
For more information about Habitat for Humanity, visit http://habitatclallam.org.
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Reporter Arwyn Rice can be reached at 360-417-3535 or at arwyn.rice@peninsuladailynews.com.
