Boone County’s affordable-housing project just got a boost from an unlikely source: the mortgage employees who help families finance homes are now helping build them, too.
The Veterans United Foundation has given Show-Me Central Habitat for Humanity a $50,000 grant, funded by Veterans United Home Loans employees, according to Inside Columbia. The money goes toward materials for the first five homes in Phase 2 of Boone Prairie, the 54-acre affordable-housing subdivision the nonprofit has been building northeast of Columbia.
Boone Prairie is planned for 143 homes when finished, with more going up in stages. Twenty-two families already live there, and the grant is earmarked specifically for the next wave of construction.
“This investment from the Veterans United Foundation is an incredible example of what is possible,” Lacey Pratt, Show-Me Central Habitat for Humanity’s fundraising and community outreach manager, told Inside Columbia, “when a local company and its employees choose to invest in the future of their community.”
The gift is part of the foundation’s Homes Matching Funds Kick-Off initiative, which is designed to spur further local giving toward the project.
For Boone County families working toward homeownership, Habitat’s model pairs sweat equity with an affordable mortgage — buyers put in hours helping build their own home and others in the development, rather than relying on a down payment alone. A grant like this one lowers the cost of getting the next five families into a Boone Prairie house.
Anyone interested in volunteering with Show-Me Central Habitat for Humanity or learning more about Boone Prairie can reach out directly through the organization’s own channels.
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