Thursday's Internet Edition, September 09, 2010.

Eye Candy Four-year-old Ariana Carpenter zeroes in on the target just before the annual Spencer egg hunt Friday afternoon on the courthouse square. Photo by Jim Cooper

Community Resources Inc. is planning to offer homes to families throughout the region, starting with one that just got under construction at 230 Chapman Ave. in Spencer

“They should be putting up the foundation as we speak,” Dawn Frederick, CRI community service manager, said last week from her office in Parkersburg.

Frederick said the three-bedroom, two-bath modular home with a cathedral ceiling is being purchased from Freedom Homes in Jackson County.

CRI was certified as a Community Housing Development Organization in December 2008, Frederick said. That’s when the agency began working toward providing homes to families in the 11-county CRI service area.

Since Wood County already had a program in place, that left 10 other counties to be served. Frederick said Roane and Jackson were the first where locations were selected. The Jackson County site is at Evans.

This week, Frederick said CRI plans to complete paperwork to purchase home sites in Calhoun, Doddridge, Gilmer, Ritchie, Pleasants, Tyler, Wirt and Wetzel counties.

“But the first home is going to be right there in Spencer,” she said.

The program is limited to first-time homebuyers whose household income does not exceed 80 percent of the median income for the area. In Roane County, that amounts to $34,500 for a family of four.

Frederick said there is no set price for the home.

“They’ll make an offer, just like anyone buying a home,” she said.

The program is being underwritten by the W.Va. Housing Development Fund.

“They oversee it,” Frederick said. “That’s who is providing the dollars.”

USDA Rural Development, formerly the Farmers’ Home Administration, will take the first mortgage, with CRI taking a second lien on the home.

The family that purchases the home will go through a homebuyer education program offered by Rural Development to qualify for the loan. Another program that follows the purchase will provide information on maintaining the home.

Frederick said the home going up in Spencer is still available.

“We had a couple we thought would qualify, but something didn’t go through,” she said.

She said interested people could contact her at 304-485-5525 to learn more about the program and the qualifications.

Once the home is located at the site in the next few weeks, finishing work will follow that will include drywall touchup and carpet installation. Landscaping and a concrete driveway will complete the exterior.

Once the home is ready, Frederick said CRI plans to hold an open house and invite the community.

She said this first home is only the start of things to come.

“This is a continuing project,” Frederick said. “As soon as we get a home in each county, we will start over again.

“We’re excited,” Frederick said. It’s going to be a really good program and these houses are great.”