Staff and volunteers at West Tuality Habitat, as well as many of our program participants, are mourning the loss Richard Kidd, who passed away last weekend. Executive Director Virginia Ohler offers her thoughts about the passing of this former West Tuality Habitat board member who took on a number of different roles with our affiliate and who was instrumental in initiating and managing numerous activities and partnerships.

Elected officials, people running for local office, representatives of various nonprofit and government programs, people working in construction, and other community members learned more about the impact of West Tuality Habitat for Humanity and were encouraged to put their faith and values into action to benefit their community at the 2024 Dream Builders Breakfast.

Representatives from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) visited the West Tuality Habitat offices in August to sign the grant agreement for our work managing the construction and family services for our Countryman Estates in Forest Grove, which will provide affordable housing to eight families. This is a Section 523 Technical Assistance (TA) Grant, a USDA program that provides financial assistance to qualified nonprofits and public bodies to help low-income individuals and families build their own homes in rural areas.

West Tuality Habitat for Humanity had a visit from Habitat for Humanity of Oregon colleagues last week, who wanted to see first hand why our home repair program is SO successful and high-performing, and a model not just for the state, but for all the USA. They observed a home assessment, saw how some simple changes to a home in Cornelius (changing out carpet to a hard surface floor, a fence along a public pathway that went along a homeowners yard, a new floor in a bathroom) transformed the lives of a family, got up close to our repair van and asked questions of our incredible home repair staff.

The West Tuality Habitat for Humanity Women Build 2024 drew 25 participants in late July, mostly women, all people who wanted to learn about basic home building and get their hands on basic construction tools they weren’t familiar with. Every year has had a different activity for participants, and this year, participants learned to use drills and impact drivers, then used that to construct practice walls, and then real walls to be used in in the construction of a shed for one of West Tuality Habitat’s home owners.