A full garage on Ava Hope Trail was indicative of the collaboration occurring in Door County to make new affordable housing options available in your community. The organization hosted the open house at its newest home in the subdivision in the shadows of one home built last year and another that could be finished by the spring. Bringing affordable housing to Sister Bay started years before shovels broke ground. United Way of Door County Executive Director Amy Kohnle explained to the audience that a Wisconsin Workforce Innovation Grant jump-started the effort to address housing and child care. The first two homes are owned by teachers at the nearby Northern Door Children’s Center, something Kohnle said accomplished what they were shooting for with the grant.
Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development Assistant Deputy Secretary Lee Sensenbrenner applauded the collaboration that made the home a reality, such as volunteer labor from Door County Habitat for Humanity, donations for organizations like the Sturgeon Bay Rotary and individuals like Barry and Mary Beth James, and state resources.
Desirae Chapman and her family will be the home’s new owners, and she is happy to be able to raise her children in the community where she grew up.
Door County Housing Partnership Treasurer Tom Fordney described the process as “a seven-layer cake,” one that has been baked to perfection.
Fordney said they have seven more plots on Ava Hope Trail to build on, with a potential condominium placed on one of them. Door County Housing Partnership (DCHP) is a community land trust dedicated to creating and preserving permanently affordable housing for the local workforce and modest-income families.
