Habitat for Humanity of the St. Vrain Valley is asking for the public’s help to locate a tool trailer stolen last week from a building site in Dacono.
“This is the first time it has happened to us. While we had a trailer broken into once, they just took a few tools. This time, unfortunately, they took the whole trailer,” Development Director John Lovell said.
The 12-foot, white cargo trailer (with Colorado license plate 230 QAD) and its contents are valued at more than $15,000. Unless the trailer is found intact, St. Vrain Habitat will need to redirect money designated to help provide homes for families and use it to replace its supplies.
Like a lot of other individuals and organizations this year, this isn’t the only setback Habitat has had to manage, but it is taking each difficulty in stride. Earlier in the year, as public life shut down in response to the coronavirus pandemic, the nonprofit needed to close its ReStore. Located at 1351 Sherman Drive in Longmont, over the course of a year the net income from the store is able to fund much of the cost for an entire home. That may not be the case this year.
As businesses and restaurants are beginning to safely reopen, the store is doing the same. It is taking substantial safety-related precautions that include mask wearing and sanitizing the store. In addition, staff is accepting a smaller number of donations. The lower volume allows for time to thoroughly sanitize each item and then store it for a week prior to it being placed on the sales floor.
While there have been some negative impacts of coronavirus, 2020 hasn’t changed the pace at which the organization does its work. As of June, it had completed four homes for families in the Longmont area. Carla Ogden, one of the new homeowners, is grateful for the housing.
“It has given me peace of mind. I’m feeling blessed, even in the middle of coronavirus, to be able to sit on my porch and be part of the neighborhood,” she said.
Habitat also has started construction on an additional four homes: two handicapped-accessible homes in Longmont, one in Estes Park, and the one in Dacono which was the site of the trailer theft. At the same time, it initiated the earliest planning stages for another eight residences. So far, staff has received 40 applications for the homes to date — a rate the organization says provides a sense of the need for affordable housing here.
As staff continues to plan for and build homes, their ability to work with volunteers also has been limited. They ultimately found that, during the ReStore closure, they were able to keep employees on payroll at construction sites. Now, they’ve resumed taking applications for volunteers, and are maintaining appropriate safety protocols for those who work on build sites.
“We’re very fortunate that we have a core group of volunteers and a dedicated staff who makes things happen,” Lovell said.
When discussing how COID-19 impacts the organization, Lovell also talked about current homeowners and how they’re managing stress. If owners develop funding issues, Habitat for Humanity works closely with them to restructure their mortgages or work out payment programs to keep them on track.
Overall, however, it was difficult to get Lovell to focus on negative impacts Habitat is having from COVID-19. Instead, he talked about the negative impacts of the housing affordability crisis. Pointing to statistics from the Colorado Housing and Finance Authority, he said those making 31% to 60% of area median income pay more than a third of their income to rent. In addition, in many Front Range communities, a median-priced home is available only to households over 100% AMI.
“The COVID part of it is small. The need for affordable housing far outweighs it,” he said.
Have information on the stolen trailer?
Those with any information about the stolen tool trailer are asked to call officer Ryan King with the Dacono Police Department at 303-833-3095.
