Featured: San Marcos Habitat For Humanity Merges With Austin Habitat Of Humanity

“We want to see a place where everyone has a safe, affordable place to live,” Snodgrass said. “And we are super excited to be providing that here in San Marcos and throughout the region. In everything we do, we’re trying to make that a reality.”

     By, Terra Rivers, Managing Editor

There are a lot of American children that grow up without the security of their parents owning a home.

Melissa Jewett, publisher and owner of Corridor News, was one of those children. Raised as an only child of a single mother, she moved from one rental to another never staying in one place for more than one or two years.

It doesn’t matter what state or city a person lives in; there are a lot of children who grow up on the “on the other side of the tracks” and without the stability provided by a permanent place to call home.

On Wednesday, March 7, the San Marcos Habitat for Humanity celebrated a merger with Austin Habitat for Humanity.

“I want to say I was a little bit hesitant at first; it didn’t feel good to be sort of absorbed,” Phil Hutchinson, president of the San Marcos Habitat for Humanity, said. “But when I really got to thinking about all the benefits they could bring and talked to Phyllis more; I thought, you know, this is worth at least discussing, which our board did on several occasions.”

The merger will allow Habitat for Humanity to “address the affordability issues throughout Central Texas” in a greater capacity.

Currently, San Marcos Habitat is in the process of building a new home for a deserving family who will be “blessed with the security and stability that home ownership brings.”

As part of the negotiations with Austin Habitat, two additional houses will be built by the end of 2019. All the donations in this part of Hays County will go toward building affordable homes in this part of Hays County, according to Hutchinson.

Austin Habitat also committed to acquire land every year going forward to ensure more houses can be built as the funds are gathered.

“I think we made a very good strategic deal where it’s a very much a win-win for all the people of San Marcos and for the habitat name and the mission of what we’re trying to achieve,” Hutchinson said. “The era of the all-volunteer boards is going away; as we get busier, folks just don’t have time to sit on all these busy boards. It was inhibiting our ability to grow; we weren’t raising the money to build more than one house a year even if that.”

Another part of the Habitat for Humanity mission is providing financial counseling to the potential homeowners for this affordable housing. Austin Habitat has paid staff, who will be able to meet with potential homeowners and guide them through the process of improving their credit and queuing them up to be able to make the mortgage.

San Marcos has been listed in several magazines, including Forbes, as a very attractive place to live and one of the fastest growing cities. Hutchinson said as towns grow and more people come looking to settle down there, affordability goes away; the homes built by the Habitat for Humanity will help keep affordable housing available in San Marcos.

San Marcos Habitat for Humanity was started in 1997. With the merger of San Marcos Habitat, Austin Habitat for Humanity spans five counties: Travis, Bastrop, Blanco, Caldwell and Hays.

Phyllis Snodgrass is the CEO of Austin Habitat for Humanity. She served as the COO of the Austin Chamber of Commerce from January 2013 to October 2015. She is also a former president of the San Marcos Chamber of Commerce and still lives in the San Marcos area.

“Our goal is not only to expand our home building but also to expand our regional restore operations,” Snodgrass said. “So we’re going to be searching for sites throughout our region. We do want to expand that retail presence, so we can produce income to pay for these homes. Our success will depend not only on the support of businesses, churches and individuals in the community but also partnerships with local city and county governments.”

Snodgrass thanked the city of San Marcos for their support and presence at Wednesday’s luncheon and said Habitat for Humanity looked forward to the discussions and projects the organization and the city would do together. She also said she was looking forward to the support of the folks at Texas State University, who would be helpful in the future.

“We want to see a place where everyone has a safe, affordable place to live,” Snodgrass said. “And we are super excited to be providing that here in San Marcos and throughout the region. In everything we do, we’re trying to make that a reality.”

In October 2017, Robert Watts became the Director of Regional Operations for the Austin Habitat for Humanity. Watts served as the vice president and senior vice president for the Greater Austin Chamber of Commerce from November 2014 to March 2017. From 2009 to November 2014, he was the executive vice president of the San Marcos Chamber of Commerce and served as the interim president/CEO from August 2010 to February 2011.

Snodgrass said the need for Watt’s position was clear when they decided to expand to Hays County as it would allow the organization to do more and realize “economies of scale on the region.”

“Literally having Bastrop and Caldwell counties was great and doing a house here and a house there,” Snodgrass said. “But when we took on San Marcos, when we talked with Phil, what we said was if we’re going to do this, it doesn’t make sense for us to take you under and keep building one house a year. If we’re going to do this, let’s do it in a way where we can create more housing and more opportunity.”

The median home price in Austin has jumped 14 percent in two years. In San Marcos, the median home price has jumped 12 percent in the same timeframe; that’s a $1,000 increase per month over 24 months.

“This is a great day for San Marcos,” Mayor Thomaides said. “Our new partnership with Habitat out of Austin is really going to make a huge difference for this community.”

Mayor Thomaides issued a proclamation to the celebrate the merger naming Wednesday, March 7, 2018, Habitat for Humanity day in San Marcos. The proclamation observes the Habitat for Humanity model, which is “a hand up, not a hand out.” Each habitat homeowner will pay a no-interest mortgage and pay property taxes, which in turn means they are invested in the community.

“The issue of housing and affordability is not just a San Marcos issue; it’s not just an Austin issue for sure,” Thomaides said. “It is a regional issue. The City of Austin, we all know the challenges they’re having there with affordability. The City of San Marcos is keenly aware of that as well, and we are committed to making sure that we don’t screw it up as much as Austin did.”

The event ended with a “board cutting” to celebrate the merger; attendees were also asked to write notes of inspiration on the inside frame of the Habitat for Humanity home for the future homeowners.

“If I could wave a magic wand and decree something,” Mayor Thomaides said, “I would say that we would have more and more of what they (Habitat for Humanity) do. And I know there are limitations, and there are the realities. Everything they’ve done so far has been topnotch and first class and nothing but a benefit to our community. I just want to do whatever I can to help them in any way possible to replicate that success even more.”