This year, Therese Cashen celebrates a dozen years of working with Loudoun Habitat for Humanity, an organization that helps local families lower the cost of homeownership and creates opportunities for future homeowners to access quality, attainable housing. Habitat celebrates its 30th year locally and staff and the board of directors aren’t resting on their laurels. They’re looking ahead to the next 30 years and how best to provide more attainable housing in Loudoun.
One bit of history worth mentioning as the group considers its future path is that the local chapter of Habitat was started by Leadership Loudoun, a non-profit group that offers leadership training to local community leaders looking to effect positive change. It was 1993, when affordable housing was even then a top area of concern for the county.
During the early years in Loudoun, the organization focused on new home construction. The search for land led to the Middleburg area where 12 homes were built. In 2010, Habitat then started buying existing homes to rehab, creating a new model for attainable housing. There are now 66 properties all over the county owned by individuals and families who’ve been helped by Habitat.
Habitat has expanded its programs to include home repairs that focus on making critical repairs to aging homes. Many of the clients for home repairs are the elderly, disabled and veterans struggling to make the needed repairs. Also added was the Tools for Life Learning Center, an online platform that provides education on financial literacy and home maintenance issues.
As one of the few nonprofits focused on providing attainable homeownership, Therese says, “We’re looking to the next 30 years and how we can make some deeper impact here in Loudoun County.
One way forward is to build partnerships with local developers. One prospective collaboration on the front burner is called The Village at Clear Springs (www.villageatclearsprings.com), a planned 246-acre, 1076-home “Master Planned Community” south of Heritage High School between Evergreen Mills Road and the Dulles Greenway.
Last October, the project received a go-ahead from the County Planning Commission and it now heads for consideration by the County Board of Supervisors at its March 13 meeting. If approved, the development will provide land and amenities to 12 townhouses to be built by Loudoun Habitat for Humanity.
The donated land will be placed in the Virginia Statewide Community Land Trust, ensuring these homes will be an affordable housing option in perpetuity to families served by Habitat. “The VSCLT supports creating and stewarding permanently affordable homes to benefit lower income families today and into the future,” Therese said.
All the homes in the development would be served by a homeowners association headed by the U.S. Tennis Association, which plans to make the development its headquarters and the site of world-class tennis facilities,
Ben Miller, co-founder and partner of Wellington Development Partners, brought Habitat to the table as part of the Village of Clear Springs. Ben is currently vice-chairman of Loudoun’s Affordable Dwelling Unit Advisory Board. Leonard "Hobie" Mitchel, the managing partner of Clear Springs Development Group, also a longtime member of the board, is also an avowed Habitat ally. Innovative ways to accommodate affordable housing have been part of his approach to development for more than 40 years.
Hobie said The Village of Clear Springs will have 18% attainable and workforce homes (around 192 units), up to 468 active adult residences, up to 610 single family attached and detached homes and plenty of open space for trails and parks, besides USTA’s 36 tennis courts and 12 pickleball courts. An existing bed and breakfast will stay on the property as will an existing church, with one additional church in the plan.
Hobie added, on incorporating Habitat housing, “We didn’t have to do this; we wanted to do this. We've long supported Habitat for Humanity. We think it's a wonderful program that really accomplishes a lot so even though we couldn't count them as affordable housing units for the ordinance requirements, we thought it was very important.”
While it could be 2026 or 2027 before Habitat can begin building homes in this new neighborhood, work continues on purchasing existing properties using funding support from the Community Block Grant and in partnership with the Department of Housing and Community Development. In September, Habitat broke ground on a stacked duplex to be built on a vacant lot located on Prince Street in Leesburg’s Lowenbach neighborhood. The families that will live in these new homes have been participating in a year-long training program to prepare them for homeownership and have invested more than 200 hours of sweat-equity working on other Habitat projects and volunteering.
Habitat will hold its Raise the Roof Gala on March 2nd at the Westfield Marriott with not just these projects in mind, but with an eye towards future projects that will offer a hand up to families who serve the community, but can’t yet afford to live here.
We met a few of these families at a taping of their testimonials for the gala: Joseph and Nadena Barnett who bought their home in 2008; Danni Butler, who was a civilian working for the fire department when she bought her home in Hamilton in 2017, and is now a volunteer chaplain; and Tijuana Plascencia, who bought her home in 1998 and has already paid off the mortgage!
“When I was selected to be a homeowner, what it meant to me was, oh my God, I can't even explain; it's like just being born again.... I didn't know how I was going to make it. I just didn't know and that was really my light in the tunnel,” Tijuana said. Her son, who was just 3 years old at her house dedication, is now a successful sous chef in Richmond. As a matter of pride, she paid off his college loans even before she paid off her house.
Many of the homeowners had difficulty holding back tears as they told their stories of raising small children in a home that was always in the same place when their kids came home from school, and the stability that home life gave their families.
Listening to their experiences, Theresa also teared up. “For me, the past 12 years have taught me that home is at the heart of everything we are, for our children and our families and our future. To be denied that -- to not be able to experience homeownership – that is a weakness in our community that demands our focus to fix.”
How you can help? Well, you can swing a hammer too. Area companies can participate in team buildings that help fund Habitat’s work in Loudoun County. Donations or discounts from small businesses in the construction or reconstruction fields are welcome. Faith communities of all religious backgrounds can participate in helping to fund projects and construction and youth volunteers are welcome. See www.loudounhabitat.org/volunteer. Unfortunately, the Restore was scheduled to close at the end of February.
And, as Therese looks to retirement, the CEO job will open and bring with it challenges for a community builder ready to change the world.
“When I was selected to be a homeowner...it's like just being born again." Tijuana Plascencia
