Kim Wilson was among the 25 families who recently finished
building their own homes
– with financial help from South County Housing and other
partners – and had a chance Friday to finally relax and celebrate
their new lives.
Kim Wilson was among the 25 families who recently finished building their own homes – with financial help from South County Housing and other partners – and had a chance Friday to finally relax and celebrate their new lives.
They had accomplished what many speakers at a ceremony Friday called the “American Dream” as they officially received their keys. For the past 13 months, the 25 families built their homes in the new Hillview Self-Help Homes development on Hollister’s west side. For more than a year, they had spent just about all their spare time and every weekend on their homes, which come equipped with rooftop solar panels and dozens of other environmentally-friendly features.
“We built communities. We built friendships,” Wilson said during the ceremony, recalling one point at the start of the process when her hands were bleeding. “So we’re ready to hibernate and sleep for a long, long time.”
Wilson and several other new homeowners were among the speakers at Friday’s event, held within a tent overlooking the block of new houses on each side of the street. Some of the one-story homes were open so that visitors could view them from the inside as well.
It was a ceremony and project headed by South County Housing, in a partnership with Grid Alternatives, the Hollister Redevelopment Agency, the USDA Rural Development program, Rural Community Assistance Corp. and Federal Home Loan Bank. The new development added to 250 other homes in Hollister built through self-help programs, in which the residents put in the work with financial assistance.
See the full story in the Free Lance on Tuesday.
