Braving Tuesday afternoon’s heat, some half-dozen people took a brief tour of a few Dallas County Habitat for Humanity success stories in Perry, including three recently built new homes — at 1726 Vine St., 1718 Eighth St. and 1726 Eighth St. — all within a block of the Perry Elementary School.
The tour was conducted by Greater Des Moines Habitat for Humanity Executive Director Lance Henning, who said that along with the three new homes, Habitat for Humanity has led some 43 homeowner-occupied house repairs in Perry since 2015, commonly called Rock the Block events.
Also touring were Dallas County Local Housing Trust Fund Housing Planner Christine Gordon, Greater Des Moines Habitat for Humanity AmeriCorps Outreach Coordinator Diane Warner, Greater Des Moines Habitat for Humanity Director of Communications Danny Akright and Greater Des Moines Habitat for Humanity Director of Construction Les Stohs.
Perry’s newest Habitat house, at 1726 Vine St., was built in partnership Homes for Iowa Inc., a program of the Iowa Department of Corrections. The house was set on its foundation March 5, 2020, and found a ready buyer.
Tuesday’s Habitat for Humanity tour also stopped briefly to admire the Rock the Block repairs made at 1715 Vine St., where a family was keeping cool in their backyard pool and waved to the passing tourists.
Henning shared other statistics that showed how active Habitat for Humanity of Dallas County has been. Since 2015 some 120 homeowner-occupied repairs have been completed countywide, including services to 35 homeowners living with a disability and six veterans of the U.S. military.
In all, $371,453 have been directly invested in repairs to homes in 12 Dallas County communities.
Anyone interested in buying a new Habitat for Humanity home or arranging a Rock the Block repair event should visit the Habitat for Humanity of Dallas County website.
