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| OA Photo by Jacob Ford |
By Ruth Campbell, Reporter
• Odessa American
MIDLAND/ODESSA, TEXAS - Previously in higher education, Jeff Meyers has turned his attention to the nonprofit world. Now working as the Midland Habitat for Humanity Chief of Staff, Jeff Meyers said he was looking for something different in the nonprofit sector.
Myers was executive director of advancement at Odessa College and director of alumni relations at University of Texas Permian Basin.
He has been with Habitat, serving Odessa and Midland, for a little more than a year.
The ad for a job intrigued him, and after talking with Executive Director Joey Hopkins, Meyers said he thought it was something that went with his work in Odessa, so he took a leap of faith.
“… I’ve been here just over a year now. It’s been great,” Meyers said.
Born in Midland, Meyers, 37, grew up in Rowlett. His wife, Bridgette, is from Odessa, so they moved back to West Texas in 2010. They have two sons, ages 9 and 5. Bridgette works at CVA Advertising.
Meyers graduated from University of Texas at Arlington in 2007 with a bachelor’s of business administration degree.
Meyers’ first job when he returned was with the Odessa Chamber of Commerce, where he worked for what is now Discover Odessa, which promotes the city as a destination for sports and other events, for five years.
“… Midland-Odessa is a challenging place to build homes. It’s a challenging place to buy homes because of the price and so the folks that we serve make 30 to 60% of the area median income. If your average house is selling for $250,000, $300,000, the folks that we serve cannot afford that. So we feel really called to continue to expand what we’re doing. What we’re doing is a drop in the bucket compared to the need … (We’re) really trying to expand that and one of the biggest places we’re trying to do that is in Odessa. We have gotten the Midland program on a pretty good footing. I think this last year, we did nine homes in Midland specifically. … We’re trying to build that to where we can get each community to about 10 to 15 houses a year. … The challenge in Odessa has been the land. The cost of just a vacant lot is sometimes astronomical and we’re battling against for-profit builders to get that. We’re trying everything we can,” Meyers said.
He added that the median income changes every year and it’s slightly different between Odessa and Midland. Meyers said they can serve up to 80 percent of the area median income, but everything they do right now is between 30 and 60 percent.
Habitat has dedicated a total of 175 homes in Odessa and Midland and they are working on 10 currently. Close to 40 people in the program have paid those off, he said.
Interviewed in the Cloverdale neighborhood on Wolfberry Court in Midland, Meyers said Habitat has had good luck with acreage.
“We’ve been very fortunate here. All of this land was donated many years ago and we’re fixing to build all this out and … be done with this subdivision,” Meyers said.
“We’ve got a few other tracts,” he added.
Recently, they got a 35-acre land donation from Pioneer Natural Resources in Midland.
“We’re really working with the City of Odessa, some of the leadership in the town, to try to get some footing over there and see if we can find some land because we’d love to build a big subdivision like this in Odessa,” Meyers said.
The Cloverdale neighborhood will have a total of 54 homes and they expect to have it completed by this time next year.
Habitat is a nonprofit that develops land and builds and sells the homes.
“What kind of sets us apart from some other agencies that do similar work is we sell the homes for just the cost of materials. And then we sell them for a 0% interest mortgage, so they’re going to get a 25-year mortgage for just … the cost of the home (with) no interest added onto that … making it extremely affordable. A lot of times the folks that we have come from rental situations where they’re paying less (for) a mortgage than they were in rent …,” Meyers said.
He added that it’s kind of a cliché, but it really is a hand up and not a handout.
“… These folks work really hard, so once they get into our program we have what’s called Homeowner College. They do a course and they do some financial literacy and learn about home maintenance and those kinds of things. … They have 350 sweat equity hours (where) they actually help build the home,” Meyers said.
He added that they may also help build their neighbor’s home. Some 3,088 hours of volunteer service were logged this year.
“Then we sell it to them … for just the cost of materials and for a 0% interest mortgage,” Meyers said.
If someone was making minimum wage, he said, a lot of times they can still qualify.
The down payment is $1,250 and it’s paid over the time that they’re in the program.
“We just completed our selection process for the next year and we have bank tellers, nurses and teachers aides and teachers; really all walks of life. What we like to say is that these are the people that keep the lights on in the Permian Basin. This is literally the working class. You may not know directly one of our homeowners, but you interact with them every day. And they’re good, hard working people that have jobs. They just kind of need that next little step up,” Meyers said.
This year, Habitat built 14 homes — 11 in Midland and three in Odessa, which is the most they have done in a year, he said.
“… We got a couple of lots from the school district that we purchased that are right there together, so we’re excited to be able to do that right there together in Odessa, and continue to build on that and try to grow that gradually as we go over there,” Meyers said.
The Pioneer Natural Resources donation was a big boost for the organization.
“And it’s not far from here; just a little bit north of where we’re at, but it’s a little bit over 35 acres. To give you a sense, this tract is just about 10. And it’s kind of laid out funny. … It’s long and skinny, which is why we have these little cul de sacs, but it’s a great big giant piece of property. … We’ll start to build that out probably at the end of next year. Infrastructure, sewer, water and roads, it takes a long time and (it will) take some money for us to be able to do that. But that is just a huge donation from Pioneer. That’s going to be able to house hundreds of families and be the biggest subdivision on this side of Midland. … They valued it a little over $2 million, which I think is very, very conservative. I think if that piece of land was on the market, it would go for well over that. … That’s going to be life changing, not only for our program, but for the families that are going to be living over there. … That is a huge donation,” Meyers said.
Meyers said Habitat raises money for each home.
“We also have kind of a quirk through our program. We have a store that sells used furniture, new flooring, paint, supplies … building supplies, appliances. We have all sorts of stuff. And that, plus our mortgage income … offset all of our overhead. Any donations that we get, any grants that we write, any money from foundations, anything like that, 100% of that goes to the price of the home. So we raise money for each of the homes and use that for the building supplies … They can go online to our website and make a donation, (or) call the office,” he said.
“… We’re working now with companies for the next year. We try to … balance our funding between corporations, foundations and individuals. Our goal is to get a third from each of those. A lot of times, it’s a little heavier on the corporations or the foundations, but the individual gifts are coming. We’ve seen a lot of great folks stepping up. One of the great things about this area is it’s a very philanthropic community. People are willing to give back. I’ve seen that with my work at the college and at the university and here. We say it takes three things to do what we do — land, money, and volunteers,” he said.
On the volunteer front, Meyers said they are blessed to have a great community that is pitching in.
The objective is to have a home completed in about six weeks.
“… Our first goal is to get it to what we call dried in about … five to six days. And that’s where it’s … kind of in this state, where it’s got the siding on … and then it’s ready for the trades to come in …,” Meyers said.
Skilled tradespeople install the plumbing and do the electrical work, for example. They don’t use volunteers for anything that has to be permitted and inspected, he said.
There are companies that work pretty consistently with Habitat.
He added that Habitat pays its way and the properties are inspected just like any other builder would be.
“We have the same level of scrutiny and build a really quality home. One of the things that we like to tell folks and funders, and even our homeowners, the folks that we serve, is that we don’t want to build you a house that I wouldn’t want to put my family in. … Our goal is to build a high quality, very nice, energy efficient home that’s going to really be a blessing for someone,” he said.
Homes are three or four bedrooms with two bathrooms, depending on family size. He said the three bedroom is about 1,100 square feet and the four bedroom is 1,200 square feet.
“They’re cozy, but they are really well laid out. There’s no garage, so all that spaces is livable space …,” Meyers said.
Once a family pays a home off, they own it. The life of the note is 25 years.
He noted that one of the great things about Habitat is that it is very well known.
Meyers said there are some misconceptions where people think Habitat gives homes away.
But Meyers said they sell the homes to families, and once a family pays off the loan, they can sell it.
“… I’m really proud of the work that we’re doing, especially trying to expand and grow what we’re doing in Odessa. The need in both communities is, as you can imagine, very similar, if not more in Odessa. We haven’t in the past done enough to really expand that as much as we could,” so in 2021 they put on “a full court press and tried to talk to everybody about the program and about helping us out.”
Habitat has 11 employees including three full-time construction people that work on the houses every day and with the volunteers, four in the office and four in the ReStore.
Executive Director Joey Hopkins said he is fortunate to have the personnel he has.
“We have a small but very accomplished staff and he is one of those people. We get the big picture and I think almost everybody that’s here, if you ask them why you do what you do it’s the people that we serve which are our homeowners,” Hopkins said.
He noted that Meyers’ background with the college and university helps.
“We’re a nonprofit, so we’re always raising money in some form or fashion to do what we do … so having somebody with formal experience doing that is extremely helpful and has been the last year,” Hopkins said.
He said he interviewed quite a few people for the chief of staff position, which is a critical role at Habitat.
“… It’s very, very important to what we do. That can mean different things at different organizations, but here he’s basically helping with literally all aspects of what we do in some way. I knew I needed somebody who was extremely trustworthy and had the utmost ethics so that was just kind of a given,” Hopkins said.
“I knew that I needed somebody who understood real estate, which we’re a developer. We build and develop houses and sell them. Jeff and his wife are both very passionate about that. They have bought and remodeled quite a few homes … so that certainly stuck out because that’s important. If you can’t empathize with people getting excited about buying a home, it’s hard to be able to do what we do. Those two things were very important and then he had a great resume of experience that I thought would contribute to what we’re doing here,” he added.
Odessa Chamber of Commerce President/CEO Renee Earls said Meyers is one of the young professionals who has come back to Odessa.
Earls said you can tell Meyers loves Odessa and he and Bridgette are examples of young people getting involved and planting roots with no plans to go elsewhere ...
• Read the rest of this OA report ...
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