Inspiring Journey to Home Repair

Meet Mr. Joe Lewis. Like his namesake, the former first black world heavyweight champion, Mr. Lewis, at 84 years old, is a champion in spirit. Living in Monterey, Louisiana, the unincorporated community in Concordia Parish, Mr. Lewis is one of the 439 residents who call Monterey home.

When Amber first applied to purchase a home through Habitat for Humanity of Greater Bangor, she had just started a new job and was looking forward to positive changes for her family. A relative had told her about Habitat’s mission helping people work with volunteers to build their own homes and secure affordable mortgages. As a first-time homebuyer and single parent, it sounded like working with Habitat might put homeownership within reach for the family, so she was excited to apply. 

Some places evoke wonderful memories of joyful years gone by. Victor’s Drive-In in Peñasco, New Mexico, is just that kind of place. Victor Martinez, a U.S. Army veteran, and his wife, Barbara, opened the restaurant in 1971.

After over 50 years in business, the restaurant’s equipment started showing signs of aging and needed replacing. Changes in environmental codes also put the business out of compliance. Martinez needed a kitchen hood with fire suppression to meet code. The kitchen hood cost over $40,000. However, without it, the restaurant remained at risk of being shut down.

Presidential Disaster Declaration DR-4831 makes individual assistance available to residents of Giles, Grayson, Smyth, Tazewell, Washington, and Wythe counties and the independent city of Galax who were impacted by Tropical Storm Helene, which hit the area on September 25, 2024, and continuing.  

You might not expect to find high-speed internet in remote mountain areas with gravel roads, but you will soon find exactly that in southeastern New Mexico in the Peñasco Valley Telephone (PVT) Cooperative, Inc., service area.

The large area that PVT covers is extremely rural. Many homes do not currently have access to dependable or fast internet. Some homestead ranches in the area have been in the family for generations and continue to operate ranches. The remoteness of those homes meant high cost to providing fiber internet.

While many companies build new hotels for efficiency, the Classic Desert Aire Hotel in Alamogordo, New Mexico, built in the 1950s, was not. Despite that, the hotel’s large roof recently offered an unexpected benefit for sustainability.

“This property was built almost for solar — Perfect south facing roofline. All of this flat open space. Already a 22-degree pitched roof,” shared Nate Mandalia, co-owner of the Classic Desert Aire Hotel. “We couldn’t have asked for a better layout for solar.”

I’d like to extend my deepest gratitude to this department, especially to Trudy Teter and her housing team. I would not have received a loan from USDA if it weren’t for them. I sincerely hope USDA continues this loan program and extends it, as I know there are thousands of people like me who could never afford a home without government assistance.

The Hatchery Row project in Battle Lake, funded by a $99,000 Rural Business Development Grant, helped to bring much-needed services and housing to a prominent vacation town. The project has marked a significant milestone in revitalizing Battle Lake's downtown and has been critical in increasing housing and retail spaces, essential for maintaining a thriving community and promoting tourism. 

For Andrew Michael Cochran, home is more than just a place—it’s a legacy. At just 23 years old, Andrew made the decision to build his own home through USDA Rural Development’s Mutual Self Help Program, following in the footsteps of his parents, who had done the same when he was a child.