Walls and trusses for eight homes to be constructed in Wayland are stored on city land across from the 11 homes to be completed by the end of June. (Photo by Jenni Glendenning)

A religiously oriented group using volunteers from many states is doing much of the housing recovery work in flood-ravaged Eastern Kentucky.

The Appalachia Service Project has completed 24 new homes and fully repaired 40 more for flood survivors in Breathitt, Harlan, Knott, Leslie, Magoffin and Perry counties since the flood two years ago.?

ASP has 12 homes under construction and is repairing about 24 more. They say they are on pace to complete 45 new homes and fully repair 65 homes by the end of this year.

In coordination with The Home Depot Foundation and Solid Rock Carpenters (nonprofit partners from the Chicago area), ASP brought nearly 400 volunteers to White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia, to build the wall sections for 16 new homes (nearly 450 sections in total) and loaded them onto trucks for transport to locations in Kentucky and Tennessee.

Eight houses’ worth of walls and trusses were hauled to property owned by the City of Wayland, just across Kentucky Highway 7 from where ASP is working on its 11th new home for flood survivors. An official groundbreaking is tentatively scheduled for June 26.?

A home “can come together in less than a single day with the help of our volunteers and friends in Kentucky,” said Chris Schroeder, ASP’s director of new build and disaster recovery. He said ASP has “been fortunate enough to serve our friends and neighbors in these areas for many years, even before the flood.”

Schroeder expects all eight homes to be completed by the end of the year. He said the 11 near completion are expected to be turned over to the families by the end of June. Most of the 17 home applications came from people within a 10-minute drive of Wayland.

The application process in Kentucky is handled by Haley Peck, ASP’s disaster recovery office and grant compliance coordinator.

“ASP is working with private landowners and local officials to identify buildable lots, preferably out of the floodplain,” said Grant Vermilya, ASP’s Kentucky flood recovery coordinator. “There is potential for 10 to 15 more in the town of Wayland alone.”?

ASP is looking into an area of private land near where the walls and trusses are stored. Vermilya said the owner is “looking at selling because he wants to see more homes like this pop up” in Wayland.

State government and other entities have helped with the infrastructure for the 11 homes in Wayland. Vermilya said the Foundation for Appalachian Kentucky donated funds to purchase the property, and the state is providing up to $100,000 per home. The rest of the gap is filled by the Federal Home Loan Bank or a collection of smaller grants, Vermilya said.

The grants, donations, and volunteer fees all go directly toward materials and logistics for building each home. The Foundation for Appalachian Kentucky and the state supported the acquisition of the Wayland property. ASP says it looks forward to working with entities and local stakeholders to acquire more properties in their disaster recovery effort in Eastern Kentucky.?

In addition to the homes in Wayland, the organization will be building nine homes in phase one of the new high-ground community of Chestnut Ridge in Knott County and an undetermined number in the Skyview subdivision in Perry County.?

ASP has been connecting volunteers with communities in Central Appalachia for over 55 years. This summer, it will host more than 9,000 volunteers in 17 counties to build new homes and repair existing homes in West Virginia, Kentucky and Tennessee counties that the Appalachian Regional Commission and other agencies have identified as economically distressed and needing help with housing.?

Of the 82 distressed counties in the ARC region, 37 are in Eastern Kentucky. Schroeder and his teams served these communities before the floods. “We’re going to be there until the job is done,” he said.

Schroeder said ASP’s foremost intention is to remain in service of families in need for many more years until the job is done and until those impacted by the flood can get back to a life they can call normal. ASP’s strategic goals are to spend the next few years building 100 new homes and fully repairing 100 more for flood survivors across Eastern Kentucky. ASP has Kentucky centers in Breathitt, Harlan, Knott, Leslie, Magoffin and Perry counties.

ASP’s overall mission is to eradicate substandard housing in Central Appalachia. Over several decades, it has brought thousands of volunteers to the region to build or repair homes for low-income families.

With the help of organizations such as the Federal Home Loan Bank and the federal departments of Agriculture and Housing and Urban Development, ASP has “been able to extend timelines for another two years to meet the people of Appalachia where they are” while being mindful of taxpayer dollars and “stretching those resources as far as they can,” Schroeder said.

The government agencies ASP works with have a disaster recovery program that has been extended “because of the amount of need that they’ve seen in Eastern Kentucky,” Schroeder said. These programs normally provide financial assistance for families affected by a disaster for two years, but “because of the scope of the flood in Eastern Kentucky and other incidents as well, they extended that timeline by another two years.”?

From left, DreamBuilders volunteers Brian Rezac and Pam Brazis, Housing Development Alliance carpenter John Evans, flood survivor Farmer Baker, HDA lead carpenter Steve Hurt and DreamBuilders volunteers Andy Cabrera and Matt Biewer. (Photo by Mindy Miller, Housing Development Alliance)

Farmer Baker was holding on for his life, clutching a pair of post hole diggers, on the night of July 27-28, 2022, as part of Eastern Kentucky’s record flooding swept through his garage on Lower River Caney in Breathitt County. He had already watched the waters sweep away his wife, Vanessa, the only one of 45 victims whose body has not been found.

“I looked up to God in the garage and said, ‘You took her, take me too, but he had a purpose for me, or he would have took me. He wouldn’t have throwed me through that garage door and let me live, not unless he’s got a purpose for me. I don’t know what it is, but he’s got a purpose for me here on this earth. Hopefully I can figure it out.”

Baker spoke Friday to Mindy Miller of the Hazard-based Housing Development Alliance, which is building three homes in the Blue Sky subdivision near the Hazard airport with the help of DreamBuilders, a Maryland-based nonprofit that brought 38 workers to the site for a “blitz build” June 17-21. Miller, HDA’s director of development and communication, provided an unedited recording for this story.

Baker, who has been living with his son, told Miller he will feel comforted living on high ground, but “God knows where you’re at. … And when the time comes, he’s gonna take you, ain’t nobody gonna save you, just like Melissa that night.”

Then he offered his philosophy of living: “The Bible says if you don’t love your neighbor, you don’t love him. I love everybody on this earth, I don’t care who they are.” Choking a bit, he added, “I love the Housing Alliance for getting me this house. I appreciate it so much, you don’t realize it.”

This is the HDA’s 30th year of fulfilling low-income families’ dreams of home ownership in Eastern Kentucky.?

DreamBuilders is an interfaith community of teens and adults who build homes for those in need. This was their second trip to Hazard; last year they largely built two homes in four days for flood survivors.

The group was led by John McBeth, who founded DreamBuilders 22 years ago as a Christian youth group. He said the week at Blue Sky was one of the hottest the organization has encountered, with temperatures in the mid 90s, but “It’s a real blessing to be here, and it’s our experience that we actually get much more back than we give.”

Two DreamBuilders volunteers, Luke Gore and Maddox Shuman, said it took them 10 days to bicycle 562 miles from Westminster, Maryland, staying with friends and family along the way. They were inspired to start an Instagram account to journal their travels: @dreamcyclers.

At the worksite, Miller updated the project’s progress on social media.

The other two homes that went up during the “blitz build” are spec homes that will be available to low-income applicants in the area.

HDA says it designs individual financing packages to be affordable for new homeowners. “This usually involves the combination of a low-interest home loan, along with a subsidy that they qualify for based on different factors,” said Julia Stanganelli, HDA’s flood recovery coordinator.

For flood survivors, Stanganelli said, there are flood-specific grants and forgivable-loan funding for which HDA helps qualify the homeowners. Sometimes, flood survivors also have funds they can contribute from their FEMA awards or funds they’ve received through a home-buyout program, and some may not need to take a loan at all, Stanganelli said: “Every situation tends to be unique.”

The blitz builders had the main walls of all three homes up by Tuesday afternoon and by Friday had all three framed and under roof. The HDA says its carpenters were on the worksites to ensure all work is up to code and passes state inspection.

Now, certified plumbers, electricians, and HVAC subcontractors will come in. It will take six to eight weeks to complete a home after the exterior is sufficiently dry enough to install weather-sensitive material such as drywall, flooring, trim and paint.

Carpenter Lindsey King started out as an apprentice carpenter with HDA’s paid on-the-job training program in residential construction for people in substance-use recovery. She impressed HDA so much as a trainee that it hired her full-time, and she is now the program’s assistant trainer.?

How to volunteer

If you have a group of volunteers interested in sponsoring an HDA project, you will need a maximum of 20 people, a $25,000 contribution for sponsorship, and the ability to spend one week in Eastern Kentucky helping to change the lives of families in need.?

The sponsorship helps finance a new home for a low-income family in need, but the house-raising challenge goes beyond the house; the sponsorship plays an important role in sustaining HDA’s homeownership program for future low-income homeowners and those in need of disaster recovery, Miller said.

Volunteers do not need construction experience. HDA carpenters are onsite at all times while volunteers frame floors and walls, set roofs and trusses, put shingles on the roof, build the porches and decks, install windows and doors, and cover the exterior with house wrap and siding.

As he watched his house go up Friday, Baker said, “You know, you’ve worked you know how many years in your life. You know what you’ve got in your home and you know what you’ve got built up, and all of it taken away from you. …? People think ‘Well, you know, he lost his home, so what?’ but I lost more. In my heart, I lost more … I lost her that night and lost everything I had.”

But now he’s getting part of it back.