Mennonite Housing reps outline program goals and guidelines

An informational meeting Wednesday evening drew representatives from three households who expressed interest in the potential affordable-housing program involving Menno?nite Housing Inc. of Wichita.

The meeting, a day after the program was discussed at the Hillsboro City Council meeting, drew about 12 people in all, according to Clint Seibel, who hosted the meetings as executive director of Hillsboro Ventures Inc.

Included in that number were representatives from city government and from the Willow Glen Homeowners Association.

Two representatives from Mennonite Housing, Andy Bias, president and CFO, and Byron Adrian, controller, were on hand to explain the program and provide financial information to potential participants.?

Seibel mentioned several points he thought were ?pretty significant?:

n Bias said the term ?affordable housing? is not the same thing as cheap housing. Affordable has to do with the financial terms, not the quality of the structure.

n Whenever Mennonite Housing goes into an existing neighborhood, it always try to complement what?s already there. The company even will submit its plans to a homeowners association for approval.

n All the homes offered by the program are from 950 to 1,100 square feet.

n The program?s self-help option requires 20 hours of labor from two members of the household, for a 40-hour investment per week. Substitute workers can be recruited, within limits.

n Participants are required to take classes that cover both construction skills and financial aspects of the program.

?(Bias) says that what happens is that homeowners, when they?re done, take much better care of their homes because they have helped work on them and they know how the thing went together,? Seibel said.

?I think this is an outstanding program if we can just get people interested in doing it,? he added.

The next step in the process, Seibel said, is to make personal contacts with households that might benefit from the program.

?You don?t have to be a first-time home buyer, but if you are, there are extra benefits,? Seibel said. ?If you are within 80 percent of the county median?s income, it?s pretty advantageous for someone to go into it.?

Anyone interested in more information can contact Seibel at 620-947-3458.

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