DAYTON — For the past 22 months, the Miami Valley has been rebuilding from the devastating effects of the Memorial Day Tornadoes in 2019.
“The Miami Valley Recovery Operations Group has helped more than 2,000 families recover — and of those 133 cases are still open and 71 are repair rebuild jobs — so were getting towards the end of that work,” said Laura Mercer, executive director of the Miami Valley Long Term Recovery Operations Group.
On Monday, a new extension of that effort broke ground on a project aimed at providing homes for tornado victims in Harrison Township.
The Recovery Group and its partners created the Pathways Project — which strives to build or rehab homes for tornado survivors to purchase.
“This project is both a neighborhood stabilization and an affordable housing initiative,” Mercer said. “So the houses will be sold at market rate. The proceeds then go back into the program and are served to build the next house.”
The homes will be constructed in 3 to 9 months and construction technology students will help build them.
“This one is being built by Sinclair Community College, so they are leveraging their students and their faculty to work on it,” she said.
She said prospective buyers will need to work through the HomeOwnership Center. Administrative coordinator Marva Williams-Parker said prospective buyers have to meet three criteria to qualify.
“One is you have to have been impacted by the tornado, two, you have to be a non-homeowner, and three, you have to be able to be mortgage ready,” Williams-Parker said.
The HomeOwnership Center will provide assistance to prospective buyers.
Mercer said she’s proud of the new initiative and hopes it can be one of the final steps in recovery.
“This project is especially dear to our hearts in that this is something that came as a result of the build teams that have been doing tornado repairs and rebuilds saying they wanted to do more in the community,” Mercer said.
If you or someone you know is still recovering from the Memorial Day Tornadoes, help is still available through Catholic Social Services by calling 937-223-7217 ext. 1137.
More information is available through the Miami Valley Strong website.
