Diabetes ended the career of Brett Young, a former college administrator at Northwestern University in Chicago. When he returned to his St. Cloud family three years ago, he didn't know if he would ever live independently again, let alone own a home.
Tina Wallin and Craig Berg lived for three years in a Pequot Lakes mobile home that had moldy walls, a leaky roof, and rotting floors. "We wanted to start a family, but we didn't want to bring a baby into that situation." Wallin said, "It was making us sick living there."
	Diane Ihrke lived in a small apartment at a Fergus Falls boarding school where she worked as a residential life director. She wanted to raise her two adopted sons in a more permanent home. "For single parents, it's such a challenge to own a home, to be able to qualify for the mortgage on a single income," she said.

Family Room

DIANE, SAM & ZEKE IHRKE

The split-level, 1970s home Ihrke and her sons moved into in Fergus Falls two years ago had been on the market for some time, but was in great shape and needed no repairs.

“We did a little remodeling, but just to suit our family better,” she said. “They encouraged us to look for a home that didn’t need lots of work. They didn’t want us to buy the cheapest home on the block.”

But Ihrke said she wouldn’t have been able to afford that home without the low-interest mortgage she found through USDA Rural Development’s Direct Home Loan Program.

The income-restricted program offers mortgage loans with interest rates as low as 1 percent for home buyers who have good credit but have been turned down by commercial lenders, said Allen Cowles, area specialist for USDA Rural Development.

The mortgages are offered in communities with populations smaller than 20,000. Participants agree to pay a percentage of any appreciated value back into the program upon resale, Cowles said.

Irhke said she found out about the program from a good friend who bought a home a month before Irhke ended up closing on hers.

Her boys, now seven and 10 years old, have benefited greatly from living in their own home.

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“They’re learning about taking care of our stuff because we want it to last. I’m so thankful, because we wouldn’t be in a home this nice without this mortgage.”
- Diane Ihrke

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IQ

From Tragedy, Hope

 

BRETT YOUNG

The St. Cloud house Young now owns sits on a busy street that reminds him of the hustle and bustle of Chicago. But the 1953 home had stood vacant for several months after the previous owners lost it in the foreclosure wave that has swept the nation.

“I found a glass pipe in the shed in my backyard. It wasn’t locked, so I think people would come and do their drugs there,” he said. “I know the neighbors were happy when I moved in and that I had bought the place instead of it turning into a rental.”

But while the price of the foreclosed property was in Young’s ballpark, he said he would not have been able to afford the necessary repairs—a new roof, replacing burst pipes, new windows and added insulation—if not for a second mortgage he was able to secure through the St. Cloud Housing & Redevelopment Authority (HRA).

Young’s neighborhood had been included in a federal Neighborhood Stabilization Program (NSP) that targets areas with heavy foreclosure rates to encourage people to buy, fix up and reside in the empty homes, said Shannon Adamski, development assistant for the HRA.

The one-time funding has helped about 30 people purchase homes in the St. Cloud area, she said. The St. Cloud HRA has allocated $700,000 of the $2 million in NSP funding it received.

Young qualified for a regular mortgage to buy the home with help from a forgivable downpayment loan also available through the NSP program. Then he got the second mortgage, which does not have to be paid for 30 years or until he sells the property.

A lack of realtor interest in selling foreclosed properties, mortgage loans that aren’t geared toward buying properties that need major repairs, and the typical delays of working with a government program were the main barriers Young said he had to overcome.

“It’s not for the faint of heart. There were times I thought it just wasn’t going to work,” he said.

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"I was in a situation where the only way I was going to afford to buy a house was to get one in foreclosure, but it’s been very rewarding for me and my neighborhood.”
- Brett Young

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Building a Future

TINA WALLIN & CRAIG BERG

It was the leaky windows that eventually pushed Wallin and Berg to seek help to repair their trailer. But after seeing its condition, a Lutheran Social Services worker suggested contacting the Lakes Area Habitat for Humanity in Brainerd to see about replacing it with something modern, affordable and safe.

Signing up led to their placement on a waiting list, which led to an application, an interview with a screening committee, approval, and eventually, 65 days of work with volunteers who helped build their new home.

“We pulled the trailer out the day before we started building and lived in a pull-behind camper with our two dogs until it was finished,”Wallin said.

The couple obtained a no-interest mortgage through Habitat and put in 300 hours of “sweat equity” into the construction of their home, which was one of 120 houses Habitat builds annually in Minnesota, said Jan Plimpton, Habitat for Humanity of Minnesota executive director.

The average family buying a Habitat home earns $23,000 per year, and many are single-parent families, she said.

The homes are designed with affordability and energy-efficiency in mind, and utility bills can average as low as $40 per month. “Minnesota Habitat for Humanity is showing that they understand that owning, maintaining and operating a home are vital considerations if homes are to remain affordable over time,” said John Harrington, Minnesota Green Communities program officer at the Greater Minnesota Housing Fund.

Wallin and Berg, who recently celebrated their engagement to be married, moved into the new three-bedroom, one-bathroom home with in-floor heating in January.

Though the process took three years from start to finish, Wallin said the experience has been worth the wait and the uncertainty of not knowing whether they would be accepted.

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“I’m not sure why we were the lucky ones. But our plan is to help someone else out. We’ll be helping on a new home Habitat is building this March.”
- Tina Wallin

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