West Tuality Habitat for Humanity 2025 Year In Review
2025 was very much a “behind the scenes” year for West Tuality Habitat: lots of meetings by our representatives about land acquisition and sales, meetings with potential new neighbors, meetings with other nonprofits providing critical services in our area, talks with city and county officials and more. While we didn’t have as many public events and announcements as in 2024, it was just as busy a year for us!
One of our highlights was the home dedication for the Stephens’ family, part of West Tuality Habitat’s Rapid Homesteads project to provide brand new, double-wide, energy efficient mobile homes on rural lots to participating households selected from West Tuality’s Homeownership Readiness program.
Another big highlight of 2025 was to, at last, welcome new construction volunteers at our Countryman Estates site in Forest Grove, and to get started on two of the homes there. We kicked off the welcoming of new volunteers with a Women Build event in the Fall which, like such events before, was hugely popular. And within just a few weeks, we were raising the first walls at two of the homes! It was a perfect way to end the year, since we started 2025 with our partner families engaging in their first sweat equity hours, learning how to read blueprints, the basics of home electricity and safety around such, how to use power tools and more.
We also were thrilled to produce and present a 12 minute video of three of our local Habitat homeowners talking about the transformation of homeownership. We have long wanted a short piece to help people understand the impact of the work of Habitat for Humanity locally, and are so happy to have made this happen at last.
If you don’t follow West Tuality Habitat on Facebook, then you missed regular updates about all of the above, as well as about our work to help vulnerable homeowners with a variety of critical home repairs. West Tuality Habitat operates the highest-performing home repair program in the state of all other Habitat affiliates, with more than 450 homeowners helped to date. In 2025, our team helped get septic/sewage lines fixed, repaired roofs and drywall, built accessibility raps, repaired failing stairs, replaced siding, rotten deck boards, failing water heaters, faucets and toilets, painted the exterior of some homes, addressed bathroom mildew issues because of a lack of ventilation, recycled a LOT of bicycles, and hauled away a great deal of yard waste and debris.
Many of the vulnerable homeowners we assist - people who are elderly, or have family members with disabilities, or are on the low-income scale - need help disposing of an overwhelming amount of old furniture and broken appliances, old carpets, and a whole host of no-longer-useful items. The amount of clutter can interfere with everyday living, making certain rooms or parts of rooms inaccessible. Many of these homeowners lack a vehicle to take items to Waste Management on the "Free" disposal day, the amount they need to discard far exceeds what they are allowed to put out weekly, and they are physically unable to move heavy items. Our critical home repair program, along with many volunteers, have helped numerous individuals and families in these situations. Sometimes, we are even able to salvage working items, like bicycles, and doors, for the ReStore. But most importantly, we have helped these homeowners greatly improve their quality of life, ensure they can keep their homeowner’s insurance, and in many cases, helped them age in place.
In early 2025, we announced our first completed projects funded by the Healthy Homes Grant Program (HHGP), which was established by the Oregon Legislature in 2021 and provides grants to local organizations serving low-income residents to repair and rehabilitate homes. For one vulnerable home owner, we were able to replace 30 year old carpet that, in addition to being long-past any sort of healthy stage, was also causing a trip hazard. This disabled military Veteran was unable to prepare for the new carpet installation by himself, so our team helped him pack up his personal items and move them to a location not affected by the install. They also helped him to disconnect his computer prior to the install and reconnect it after. This homeowner now refers to the team as ‘computer geniuses’. For another vulnerable homeowner, we were able to build and ADA ramp and replace the roof to repair an active leak.
In August, we announced that West Tuality Habitat for Humanity has become a part of a new grant program for free replacement of a gas-fueled appliances (such as a furnace/water heater, a gas fireplace, etc.). This grant comes from the Oregon Low Income Energy Efficiency Program (OLIEE program) through the Oregon Energy Fund nonprofit, and the grant is funded by Northwest Natural. We’ve administered this program through our critical home repair program.
In October, West Tuality Habitat and the Forest Grove / Cornelius Chamber of Commerce convened representatives from various agencies and organizations serving Western Washington County to discuss ways for greater collaboration and information-sharing towards all of our desires for building and sustaining safe and affordable communities for our diversity of residents. The name chosen for this coalition is Building Together | Construyendo Juntos, and it is hoped members will meet quarterly, as well as more freely-share information and resources in between meetings.
In June, a West Tuality Habitat employee, Jayne Cravens, volunteered in Paraguay via the newly relaunched Habitat Global Village program. Also that month, representatives from our affiliate helped to host the Local Build Exchange MWESB COBID Vendor Fair with the Cornelius Public Library, “an opportunity to spark collaboration, exchange ideas and build relationships that support the growth of local businesses and strengthen our community's infrastructure.” Minority/Women-owned/Emerging Small Businesses; Oregon’s Certification Office for Business Inclusion and Diversity (COBID) certifies businesses that apply and meet the state’s criteria for these programs.)
In May, West Tuality Habitat hosted members of Just Create Community, LLC, “a social impact business creating a welcoming world of belonging and connection” The group's members visited our Forest Grove ReStore to learn more about Habitat for Humanity’s work and how the ReStore supports the work of our Habitat affiliate. In February, we hosted the Forest Grove/Cornelius Chamber of Commerce Rise and Shine event, further connecting with local businesses, building new relationships, and learning more about what’s happening in our community.
Speaking of the ReStore, we ended the summer by beginning a big overhall of the ReStore’s inventory and changing where that inventory is displayed within our sales spaces. That overhaul is continuing through the rest of the year.
In April, community members turned out to support West Tuality Habitat at our "Keys to Hope" Benefit Dinner & Auction at the Forest Grove Senior & Community Center. Also in April, some West Tuality Habitat staff members attended the Habitat for Humanity Western Region Conference in Portland, to learn more about everything from more sustainable building techniques to how to better support our partner families. It's a conference that's held every two years and plays an important role in the professional development of our staff, to help us improve our work.
In March, some members of our board (all volunteers!) and one of our homeowner partners went to Salem to meet with our state legislative representatives, including State Representative Susan McLain and staff from Oregon State Senator Janeen Sollman's office. Nearly 100 advocates from 45+ organizations met with 66 Oregon legislators to push for more homes and greater opportunities as a part of the Unlocking Homeownership Coalition Day at the Oregon State Capitol.
To start off 2025, we tried something new: a kick off event for all returning volunteers, for people assuming volunteer leadership roles, and for new volunteers who were planning on helping more than at just one event. Held at the Forest Grove United Church of Christ in downtown Forest Grove, we got all returning and new volunteers’ paperwork up-to-date, provided everyone with the required Habitat for Humanity safety and safeguarding training, and gave attendees an idea of what the year had in store for volunteers. What we weren’t expecting is a couple of attendees taking the floor to offer testimonials about how much they loved volunteering with us! We did this in association with MLK Day (though not held on that day), and will be doing it again in 2026!
And to end the year, our annual holiday concert was Saturday, December 6 at 3 p.m., also at the Forest Grove United Church of Christ, followed by the Forest Grove Holiday light parade, which once again featured a float by the Forest Grove ReStore, ridden by staff and their families. It was great to both start and end our public events at the location of one of our favorite community partners. Thanks to all who attended!
On a sad note, we lost one of our long-time donors, Stella Schrag of Forest Grove. She supported us for the last 10 years. We also lost one of our long-time volunteers who worked on many of our homes in Western Washington County, Cliff Ebert, who passed away at age 93. Cliff volunteered with us until he was 90 years of age- and, as one of our other volunteers pointed out, "he could still out work many of us at that point." Cliff was an inspiration and is missed!
Four corporate groups volunteered with us in 2025, from Intel, TTM Technologies, Inc., Wauna Credit Union of Forest Grove and Forest Grove Real Estate - John L. Scott. Members of community groups and schools that volunteered with us in 2025 included Forest Grove PEO, which decorates the ReStore for the holiday season each December, Just Create Community, and Catlin Gable school. We also hosted volunteers from communities of faith: a group from Visitation and St. Francis Catholic Churches and schools, and members of Refuge of Christ in Forest Grove. We also hosted students from Pacific University, who helped us with home evaluations for our critical home repair program as a part of a work-study program, applying what they are learning in the classroom in the field.
Our financial donors from the corporate world included Wauna Credit Union; First Community Credit Union; Heritage Bank; Portland General Electric; Five Star Builders of Banks, Oregon; Forest Grove Dental Studio; NW Natural; Bunny Girt, State Farm; Jill Verboort, State Farm; Woodfold Manufacturing.; North Plains Chamber of Commerce; A&J Electric; Willow & Ash; Urban River Spirits and Ace Hardware. We also thank St. Bede's Episcopal Church in Forest Grove for their generous donation.
West Tuality Habitat for Humanity is a local affiliate of Habitat for Humanity International and was formed in 1991. In addition to the affordable housing program, West Tuality Habitat also has a critical home repair program for low-income households, seniors, military veterans, and people with disabilities, allowing them to remain in their homes and age in place. West Tuality Habitat also operates a ReStore in Forest Grove, selling gently-used, furniture, appliances, home furnishings and leftover building supplies. These sales help fund its Habitat activities in the area.
For more information about donating financially, volunteering or applying to be a program participant, visit the West Tuality Habitat for Humanity web site at westtualityhabitat.org or call (503) 359-8459. There is also information available at the Forest Grove ReStore at 3731 Pacific Avenue.
To get updates about West Tuality Habitat events and volunteering opportunities, go to our volunteer page and sign up on the form at the bottom of the page, and/or follow us on social media, on Facebook, on Instagram, on Bluesky, on LinkedIn and on Mastodon for more frequent updates.
Please note that our annual reporting is done by fiscal year, July 1 through June 30. You can read our 2024-2025 fiscal report here.
