Down on her luck and without any other place to go, Yvonne Holland and her daughter, Brittany, were forced to live in a storage building in August 2010.
Now, thanks to a program from USDA Rural Development, the two are about a month away from moving into a new home.
Holland is utilizing a federally subsidized home loan program designed to help low-income families realize the dream of affordable housing. She has received a 33-year, low-interest loan to finance her two-story, two-bedroom house.
“It’s a new home and a new life,” said Holland. “I never wanted to be in that storage building, but the circumstances the way they were, I had no other choice. I cried before I went in there because I had Brittany with me and I didn’t want something like that for her. I would have caught my death from bug bites if this town didn’t get us out of there.”
After Holland’s story appeared in the Friday, Aug. 20, 2010 edition of the Standard, she was bombarded by concerned citizens who appeared at her storage building. The local UCHRA office paid for her and Brittany to stay in a motel room that weekend, and a local resident provided her with a rental home at a very reasonable price.
Living in the rental home gave Holland a chance to figure out what to do with some property she owned off Sparta Street. She had paid $6,500 for the property, which included an older wooden home in the process of collapsing.
The home didn’t have a floor, interior walls, working plumbing, a front door and several windows. Some onlookers told her the $6,500 she paid for it was way too much.
With no money to make repairs to the house, the city of McMinnville stepped in to lend a helping hand. In an effort to clean up a neighborhood eyesore and help a potentially homeless woman in the process, the city waived its normal demolition fee and tore down the home for free. Holland said having a clear lot helped her obtain the Rural Development loan as much as anything.
“Public Works removed the home at no cost with the understanding a new house would be rebuilt there,” said city codes inspector Josh Baker.
Added Holland, “I wouldn’t have been able to get this home if it wasn’t for the city. You go through the program and you see if you can pass income wise. If that house hadn’t been torn down, we wouldn’t have been able to make it on our income.”
Holland’s new home could be finished in time for the holidays, but it will more than likely be the first of the year. She said all the paperwork involved in getting Rural Development support was “tedious” and said she was even required to take a class about buying a house.
Since her stay in the storage building, Holland has been approved for disability benefits because of a lingering back issue. She has always enjoyed biology and says she would like to return to school to work toward her dream job at the Centers for Disease Control.
“It was embarrassing being in that storage building, but you have to go with what life gives you,” said Holland. “This is a wonderful neighborhood and everybody seems really nice here. I hope I can move in the right direction because my life has always stopped me from doing what I wanted to do.”
Brittany, now 19, will continue to live with her mother in the new house. Holland is the mother of three other grown children.