A Home For Habitat
WE DID IT! Thank you!
Thanks to over 120 individuals, corporations, churches and foundations, we were able to raise the funding to purchase our office and warehouse space in August 2012. Look at these great photos from our official lease burning party:
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A Campaign to Secure our Future
Willamette West Habitat for Humanity was incorporated on October 12, 1988 as the 350th U.S. affiliate of Habitat for Humanity. We owned a steeply sloping lot in SW Portland, and we had a set of plans that we prayed would work. With an engaged and growing board of directors, money was raised from local churches and work began on our fi rst home. It was completed and sold in late 1991, and a Habitat partner family still occupies that home today.
In 1994, an Aloha family of modest means donated some property to us. We purchased the adjoining lot, giving us room for 10 homes, and named the neighborhood “Samaritan Court” after the story in the Bible of the Good Samaritan.
With our lease about to expire in 2009, a search for a new office with warehouse space was launched. Our goal: Secure our future. We wanted the stability that comes with ownership, just like the families we serve.
A total of 32 homes over the next 30 years!
What Will Owning Our Building
Mean To Habitat?
Owning our office/warehouse, and eliminating our monthly rent payments, jump starts our capacity to build homes and serve families.
Over the next 30 years we will:
- Save nearly $1.4 MILLION dollars in rent.
- Generate enough cash to build an additional 32 homes.
- Secure our future.
As building owners, we will join the ranks of other successful, financially stable nonprofit organizations in the Portland metro area that own their facilities. These include Portland Metro/East Habitat for Humanity, Mercy Corps, Medical Teams International, and the Oregon Food Bank.
Our next step is a capital campaign to purchase our newly leased, and recently renovated, offi ce/warehouse space. The money we will save on rent alone will allow us to build more homes each year. And, we’ll have the stability of ownership, protecting us from rising rents, the whim of landlords and economic volatility.
Why the Elam Young Parkway Property?
Although we looked at several properties, our decision to choose the Elam Young Parkway space was easy.
- Great timing: We were able to negotiate a lease with a purchase option during a “buyers market.”
- Great price: Comparable spaces in our business park are currently selling for over $150 per square foot, 30% higher than our purchase option price of $115/sq. ft.
- Great location: We are now within easy walking distance of TriMet’s bus lines and MAX, making us more accessible to our partner families and volunteers.
- Great asset: The property will be a valuable financial “nest egg” for Habitat.
- Great space: The property will meet all of our needs today, and tomorrow.
Funding raised as of March 2012
How Much Do We Need to Raise?
$650,000. But we must purchase the property by July 2012 in order to take advantage of the great price.
We're Part of a Global Effort
Willamette West Habitat for Humanity is one of 1,500 affiliates in the United States and 550 international affiliates that coordinate Habitat house-building projects over 3,000 communities around the world, all working together to end substandard housing from the face of the earth. In 2011 Habitat built its 500,000th house, serving more than 2 million people since 1976. Oregon affiliates participated in that milestone by dedicating our 1,000th Habitat home in 2010. We were honored to have done our part by placing 72 families into simple, decent homes since 1988, including 14 families in a 14 month period.
Over our 23 year history, we’ve steadily grown. In our first five years we completed just two homes; during the last five, we completed 27. By our 25th anniversary in 2013, we plan to have completed 40 more.
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