Home Dream Becomes Reality for Local Veteran

This story was originally published in the Grundy County Herald.

A 35-year-old Army veteran and single father of two is settling into his new role of homeowner – a dream he wasn’t sure would happen in today’s tough market.

Jake King had searched for an affordable house in Grundy County for the better part of three years when a chance encounter at a lumber store changed his life.

“The housing market is crazy,” he said. “You look around, and people are asking $300,000 for a 30-year-old singlewide trailer on half an acre of land. It’s hard to find a house here.”

His dilemma was not unique. It’s a common problem recognized by Housing Hub, a nonprofit developer, whose mission is to build affordable homes for working families – teachers, healthcare workers, first responders, and service professionals – on the South Cumberland Plateau.

King’s uncle, Sam Ware, was working at Greeter Lumber in Altamont when Housing Hub’s Cody Jorstad mentioned that they were about to put their second build, the Angel House in Coalmont, back on the market after their initial buyer fell through. King’s uncle asked Jorstad not to list it yet and immediately called King, who drove by the house on Colony Road that evening. Within a couple of days, he walked through the house with Julie Keel, Housing Hub’s executive director.

“It’s a super nice house,” King said. “The yard is huge. It’s sitting on three acres. I was really impressed with it and the asking price. It just blew my mind – three acres, a three-bedroom house for $250,000.”

Although he’d lived in Grundy County for most of his life, King had never heard of Housing Hub. He graduated from Grundy County High School in 2009 and enlisted in the Army at 19. An aviation electrician, he was stationed at Hunter Army Airfield in Savannah, Ga.

“I worked on Black Hawk and Chinook helicopters,” he said. “I was in the Army for four years. I stayed there my entire time except for my nine-month deployment to Kandahar, Afghanistan.”

He left the Army one day shy of his 23rd birthday to return to Grundy County and worked at Nissan in Decherd for seven years before going to Tennessee College for Applied Technology where he first studied motorcycle and marine services. Two years later, he returned to get his certificate in industrial maintenance.

“I’ve been doing that for about two years,” King said. “It’s a little bit of everything. Hydraulics, electrical, mechanical, programmable logic computers, all on factory equipment. I work for Newell Brands in Manchester.” A busy single father, he works a 4/10 shift – four days of ten-hour shifts from 5 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.

Buying the house meant finally having a place of his own for him and his kids. His oldest, Emberly, 6, just started first grade at North Elementary, where King himself went to school. His son, T.J., is three.

“Emberly broke me down pretty bad on the Sunday we moved in,” he said. He and a buddy had worked all day to get furniture moved in when he picked his kids up to bring them to their new home. Exhausted, he showed his daughter her new bedroom complete with a big girl bed.

“She said, ‘Daddy, I know that you’ve been working hard and saving money for this house. Thank you for buying this for us.’ And she gave me a hug,” he recalled. “When she pulled away, she said, “Daddy, why are you crying?’ I said, ‘It’s happy tears.’ She hit me right in the warm fuzzies.”

His favorite part about their new house is the huge kitchen which opens up to the great room. He’s already got kid’s artwork on the refrigerator and looks forward to frequent family meals around the black, square table that anchors the middle of the kitchen.

A family like King’s settled in their new home is the kind of payoff that’s impossible to place value on, and, ultimately, it’s what Housing Hub is all about. “In Jake’s situation,” Keel said, “he’s emerging out of a challenging season, and he’s on the upswing. This boost is going to put him in a place he wasn’t expecting, and that trajectory feels really important to us and him. That’s kind of what we’re here for.”

The build, in part, was made possible by the generosity of six Angel investors, who made zero interest $25,000 construction loans to the nonprofit.

“Now that we’ve sold the house, we are paying those investors back,” Keel explained. “The payback is good for someone who’s concerned about working folks attaining affordable housing. They’ve helped us unlock a house for a family who can’t otherwise attain housing in the market.”

Another key player who worked closely with Keel and King to put the financial package together was Monteagle’s Justin Lusk, who’s with New American Funding. Lusk has known King pretty much all his life.

“Throughout the process, my main goal was to make things as stress free as possible,” Lusk said. “Anytime I can help a first-time home buyer is rewarding, but anytime I can help a veteran home buyer, it’s an additional bonus. When it's somebody you've known when they were a kid and watched open up Christmas presents, and now they're opening a big present that you were part of, it’s even more of a gift for me.”

King is grateful for all the help he received. “I wouldn’t have been able to do this without Housing Hub and New American Funding. They’ve really helped me out a lot.”

For Keel, that’s Housing Hub’s bottom line.

“We’re proud we could give him the opportunity, the boost, the encouragement – it’s Jake’s pathway, it’s his money. We didn’t give him anything for free,” she said. “It’s such a big deal to have a home for you and your children. It’s a roof. It’s health care. It’s a safe place to lay your head. It’s the realization of a dream.”

As for King, he and his family look forward to many more sweet dreams in their new home.