The Town of Paradise faces two dilemmas: rebuilding after the 2018 Camp Fire and a lack of affordable housing for those moving back in. That's changing one family at a time, or in this case, three families at a time.
The Wolfe, Brand-Castro and Castillo families were presented with their new homes off Newland Road Saturday morning, surrounded by handfuls of Habitat for Humanity of Butte County volunteers who helped build said homes. Those volunteers include each of the three families.
It's part of a Habitat for Humanity program that aims to bring more affordable housing to Butte County by allowing applicants to help build the homes they will eventually live in while paying only the costs they can afford. Ground broke on these one-story/three two-bedroom/one-bathroom homes over a year ago, as the nonprofit’s executive director, Nicole Bateman, says it wasn’t easy post-destruction.
“There were a lot more challenges after the Camp Fire,” says Bateman while standing in front of one of the homes Saturday morning. “Septic, surveying and the topography is very different up here. So, it definitely was a challenge to figure out all of those obstacles, but we overcame all of those things.”
Concrete walls hold up the roof, a more fire-proof way of building than with wood, which also provides increased energy efficiency due to insulation.
One of the homes goes to mother-son duo Jennifer and Riley Wolfe. They lived in Old Magalia prior to the 2018 blaze where Jennifer worked at a café and Riley enjoyed his childhood. Post-fire, life was not as easy.
Six months in a trailer preceded their stay in a Chico apartment that she says has gone up in rent each year. Jennifer was forced to find new work, while Riley was forced away from the only life he knew.
But Saturday, and 250 hours of sweat-equity hours later, the pair was emotional while seeing the completed project in front of their eyes. It means Jennifer can be closer to her new job at the Boys & Girls Club, while Riley can begin the upcoming school year at a Paradise Unified Junior High School where he plans to pursue soccer.
"For me, being a single mom, to just have affordable housing, I’ve been a renter my whole life. To have a home that’s ours and to know how hard it was after the fire and losing everything and how hard I've worked and just persevering,” says Jennifer after the ceremony while Riley holds a potted plant donated to the families. "It's just so rewarding and very overwhelming."
When they ask other Habitat home recipients what to expect, they say a brighter future. Mary Shippen helped build and received her home a decade ago in Chico and has since been so moved to join the nonprofit’s board of trustees after experiencing the impact of becoming a homeowner.
She, along with these three new homes, has helped build 18 houses for those she once related to.
"Building my home, it changed my life in that I began to trust people again and open my world to new opportunities to meeting people,” says Shippen on the front law of one of the homes Saturday morning. “Within the walls of that home I see every volunteer that came through and hammered a nail for me. I see the people on the roof. I see the women builders that were also instrumental in the build There isn't a day that goes by that I don't go by my house and think, ‘it's mine, and it will always be mine.’"
The now-homeowners placed a $1,000 deposit on their homes each and have a locked-rate for their mortgage. Bateman says these are the first three Habitat homes in Paradise since 2018 and expect to build four more by the end of the year. Their goal is to build 10 every year.