It was about seven years ago that my family and I were lucky enough to move into our house right after it was built by LCHT. It was a brand new!
The house is a three bedroom, two bathrooms and it’s right across the street from a park. The whole place is energy efficient and handicap accessible. My husband and I have a daughter and a son and we didn’t really think the accessibility thing was something that we would utilize but last year, my husband ended up needing a walker and my daughter broke her foot and the accessibility factor was incredibly helpful.
Since we’ve been in this house, I’ve been able to finish my associates, bachelors and masters degree in social work at KU. The affordability of our rent has allowed us to have childcare while I went to school and the location has allowed us to be close to KU and Haskell which has been super helpful for my attendance as a KU student and for my husband’s work at Haskell.
With me finishing school and my husband getting close to retirement, our family is having a lot of income changes. When it comes to affordable housing, I think there’s a miss-conception and a stigma; that it’s for “Poor People” or that it’s a handout. That’s not necessarily true and it’s a stigma that I’d like to break.
Even though my family is middle income, the market rental costs in Lawrence would force us to live paycheck to paycheck. I would like city officials and people in general to know that as a Native American family, the rental program through LCHT has been really great for us. I really want to stress that it’s important to have people like those at LCHT to work with.
