Thursday, September 12, 2024

For Those Attending in Person

Lunch Buffet

(Zoom Meeting Opens at 11:45)

(Link Sent Thursday Morning)

At

 

Kay Parries

Rotary District Governor

 

District Governor Kay Parries has been a member of the Moorhead Rotary Club since 1988.  Originally from Elgin, Illinois, her first knowledge of Rotary was as a Rotary High School Scholarship recipient.  Join your fellow Rotarians to learn about District Governor Kay’s vision for District 5580 and what the future might hold.

 

By Renee Burns

 

Rotarians gathered the West Dining Room at the Kitchi Gammi Club and were called to order by President Elizabeth Simonson who led us in the Pledge of Allegiance and Four Way Test.  Past President and Past Assistant District Governor Phil Strom gave a thought provoking Reflection about homelessness and how broadly it affects our society, noting it is sadly pervasive and a hot button political issue.  A compassionate society needs to take care of the poor and downtrodden and help lift them up.  He also reminded us that 27 years ago our club built not one, but two Habitat for Humanity https://www.wlshabitat.org/ homes in West Duluth.  Perhaps we should consider another project to assist those in our community who lack adequate housing and help them on a start to a more secure future.

 

President Elizabeth Simonson call to order.  Jeff Fifield, Past President Chana Stocke and speaker Jeff Corey reciting the Pledge of Allegiance.

 

Guests at the meeting included our speaker Jeff Corey and Tim Simonson, son of President Elizabeth Simonson, both received a warm Rotary welcome.

 

An invitation by President Elizabeth Simonson for members to Kick the Golden Can with self-reports for the week turned into an ask for Jon Ohman to Kick the Bucket?? as he bounced to the podium, which she quickly corrected, whew!  Jon Ohman shared amazing news that two of his grandsons attend college and play football in Arkansas and the oldest, Brady, scored FOUR touchdowns, 240 yards and was named Arkansas Play of the Week!  Way to go Brady!

Jon Ohman sharing grandson Brady’s football accomplishments.

 

Jerry Pelofske had a good news follow up to last week’s request for donations to the Rotary Foundation to make up a shortfall in funds to grant Lake Superior College students scholarships.  Thanks to the typical generosity of our kind Rotarians the $1,500 shortfall was erased, and the grants have been made.

 

Jeff Fifield made a plea for help with the Student Rotarian Program.  We need school liaisons for Proctor, Hermantown and Lakeview Christian Academy.  Being a liaison doesn’t take much time, you will welcome the students to the meetings and make them feel at ease, introduce them to other Rotarians.  Please consider becoming a school liaison, this is a great program, and we need help to continue!

 

Past President and Chair of the Day Chana Stocke was pleased to introduce our speaker Jeff Corey, with whom she has worked through One Roof and Land Trust Projects for 25-years, prior to her retirement from North Shore Bank. 

Chair of the Day Chana Stocke

She noted that Jeff grew up the oldest of seven children on a farm near Mankato and moved to Duluth in 1995 to take a job as Executive Director at Loaves & Fishes.  She saw firsthand what One Roof has done to improve housing in Duluth and was proud to be a small part of it over time.  Jeff is married to his high school sweetheart Michele, and together they have two grown sons.  A warm Rotary welcome followed her introduction.

 

Speaker Jeff Corey

Jeff started his presentation by stating the One Roof Community Housing https://1roofhousing.org/ tag line, “We Make Home A Better Place”.  They use this statement when deciding to do a project.  As help to understand the background and transition of the organization Jeff gave this useful timeline as to how the organization has transformed and grown in the last 40-years:

1983 – Neighborhood Housing Services

1990 – Northern Communities Land Trust

2012 – One Roof Community Housing

 

Currently the organization has 30 staff and operates a construction company with five employees.  They are a true community membership organization.  As such, their board includes members who have purchased a home through One Roof. Jeff noted however that they do not work alone, they are supported by lenders, title companies and homeowners.  In fact, it does take a BIG village to make housing happen in a community.  Their work is to make people’s lives better.

 

Unfortunately lack of housing can be systemic and race does play a significant role.  Blacks and Native Americans have been excluded over the years through slavery, red lining and being moved from their lands to reservations.  One Roof helps everyone, but they provide a little more focus on BIPOC communities to help overcome longstanding bias in housing.

 

Communities are better if everyone has a safe and stable place to stay, employees work better,  students learn better and family units are stronger.  Unfortunately, the housing market does not work well for poor people, and now increasingly, it doesn’t work well for many moderate-income families either.  In the last 10 years the percent of affordable housing has dropped sharply, and homelessness continues to rise, DESPITE the increasing focus and resources devoted to the issue.

 

 

 

Their work is based on several levels of support:

 

So, what’s the deal with Community Land Trust, Jeff asked?  Simply put, buyers can purchase a home for 30-40% below market value.  The buyers agree to “pay it forward” when they eventually sell the home.  At the time of the sale, they get back what they paid, plus 25% of the appreciation in the home and the “deal” gets passed on to the next homeowner.  To date they have helped 200 homeowners.

 

With the current high costs of construction, they are not building larger homes anymore, but they are not cutting corners when it comes to design and aesthetics.  In fact, their homes have been recognized for their good design and have won awards.  And they have a lot of projects in process or recently completed.  Among them they are planning a 20 home project as part of Harbor Homes, there is 24 unit Plover Place for those experiencing chronic homelessness and Brewery Creek Apartments across from Whole Foods on 4^th street with 52 units, 26 of which are set aside for youth experiencing homelessness with people starting to move in this week.

 

One Roof has been successful in gaining more than $62 million from Minnesota Housing for projects that include 73 Community Land Trust homes, 60 of them in Duluth.  Their service area is broad and covers Duluth, Hermantown, Proctor, Cloquet, Grand Rapids and because of the small size of Cook County, Grand Marais as well.

 

Jeff’s presentation provoked great interest and many questions from members which he graciously answered.

 

President Elizabeth Simonson warmly thanked Jeff for his presentation and the work done by One Roof Community Housing.

 

In closing the meeting, we were reminded that September 12 is a Rotary Night at the Playhouse for a performance of Jersey Boys, let President Elizabeth Simonson know if you and a guest would like to attend. 

 

And finally, Rotary Breakfasts are back beginning on Friday, September 20 at 7am at the Kitchi Gammi Club!