Serving Whitman County since 1877
Serving Whitman County since 1877
PHH Becky
PHH loading
Becky Miller tends the till at Surplus Sale which raises funds for Palouse Habitat for Humanity.
Volunteers Mike Madsen, left, and Jim McCloskey load a recently purchased dresser.
Need something for the house? Want to help someone else get a house? The Palouse Habitat for Humanity Surplus Sale store is one of those places where both can be accomplished at once.
“We’re a thrift store for home improvement materials,” said Jennifer Wallace, Palouse Habitat for Humanity executive director.
“We launched it basically as an intermediate garage sale in 2012.” The store was all volunteer-run the first year, only open two and half days a week. While the name can be a little misleading, Surplus Sale is now open Tuesdays through Saturdays 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. with two paid managers.
The Surplus Sale store is located in Moscow at 304 N. Main.
“The rest of the staff is volunteer; they’re amazing,” said Wallace. The store uses a wide variety of volunteers: repair people, people people, cash register people. Most volunteers are retirees who come in once or twice a week or month, depending on their availability. “They’re such a great group.”
According to Wallace, sales from Surplus Sale will soon be the number one way PHFH covers cost associated with the homes it builds. Donations of home décor, home improvement or construction material, furniture and antiques stock the stores shelves for others to purchase for their own projects.
“Most people don’t need a whole piece of sheetrock if they have a hole in the wall,” Wallace said. The store carries a vast selection of housewares including doors, sinks, cabinets, sprayers, plungers, carpets, washers, lighting and random pieces. Some items that come in are repaired, some repurposed like cabinet doors that are painted into signs. Donations of clothing are not accepted, but pretty much anything else home-related is. Depending on the items, PHFH has a team that can pick them up from the donor.
Proceeds from the store cover overhead costs like insurance. PHFH has to raise all the money it needs locally to buy the land and materials to build homes for families in need on the Palouse. The organization has built homes in Colfax, Pullman, Palouse, Uniontown, Albion, Genesee and currently Potlatch.
“We’d love to be building back in Colfax; it’s such a great community,” Wallace said. The second home constructed by the group was done in Colfax and the home was recently paid off. If they find another affordable lot to build on, another could be underway in the future.
PHH partners with needy families to construct new homes for them to live in and buy at cost. The families actively participate in the process with sweat equity. To qualify, a person must have lived or worked in Whitman or Latah county for at least the last year, be living in inadequate housing and be willing to fulfill partnership obligations.
“They need to have at least a little bit of income,” Wallace noted. She said they see this as a hand up, not a hand out. The average monthly house payment for the PHFH homeowner is about $550 per month. Income must fall within 30 to 60 percent of the area median income for the two counties.
The sweat equity work can vary depending on abilities. A single adult needs to do about 150 hours of sweat equity, but family and friends can help fill some of that. Wallace said if the person has disabilities they can still find ways for them to help, including volunteering at the store or office.
“Part of our culture is encouraging volunteerism,” she said.
With one house going up in Potlatch for a single mom with two kids, PHFH already has a lot in Palouse getting primed for some new homeowners. A call for applications for the Palouse location is expected to go out this spring, but anyone interested in being on the tickler list can contact PHFH for more information. The Palouse house construction would be done in 2019.
“It takes us a couple of months to get through those applications,” Wallace said. She added that there are not as many applications as one might think, and she encourages people to call.
“We’ve had some amazing families,” she said.
Families receiving the PHFH homes also have to save $1,000 for closing costs. That amount is usually saved up during the building period which is about 10 months.
Anyone interested in volunteering, donating or applying for a home can call 208-883-8502 or check the website at palousehabitat.org.
Jana Mathia is a reporter at the Whitman County Gazette.
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