01/19/2021
Salem, Oregon Radio Station KYKN, Sits Down with Jordan Truitt to Discuss Rebuilding the Area After the Recent Wildfires, Including the Giveaway of Park Model Tiny House
In case you missed the “Newsmakers” radio show with Brent DeHart and Dave Bourne broadcast on Friday, January 15, 2021 on Salem, Oregon radio station KYKN 1430 AM, we’re summing up some exciting changes – including the donation of a park model tiny home - in the local community’s efforts to help rebuild Oregon, as discussed by guest, Jordan Truitt.
Jordan Truitt, who is a real estate broker with First Commercial Real Estate Services, LLC located in Salem, felt like he wanted to give back after the wildfires affected his part of the world a couple of months back. As part of the Truitt family of Salem, Oregon – a family who has a long, rich history of employing and helping many local citizens in the area – Jordan felt like he wanted to carry on his family’s tradition of helping others in his community, especially after the devastating wildfires which impacted so many.
Along with the local Mid-Willamette United Way (of which Jordan sits on the board of directors) and countless other volunteers in the area, Jordan continued working to help the community, long after the smoke and fires cleared and the hype wore down. Initially, the United Way Resource Center on Silverton Road was open to accepting donations and was quickly overwhelmed by the kindness of the community. Astounded by the response, Jordan then decided to open an idle, 33-thousand square-foot warehouse on Front Street, which has been owned and in his family for many years. The public continued to the warehouse in droves, donating everything from mattresses, to water, to beef jerky and astoundingly to donating older RVs, which got repurposed for donation as well!
Along with the help of volunteers tackling various roles such as packers, sorters, distributors and truck drivers, the donations have been reaching their targets in the Canyon area, every day. When asked what types of donations are currently needed in this evolving process, Jordan stated that monetary donations are always helpful, but commented that one of the biggest needs is housing, and this is part of the radio interview that became really interesting!
Jordan partnered up with another Front Street company – International Housing Concepts (IHC for short), who along with Tiny Mountain Houses are collaborating together to build a brand new, Park-Model tiny home, which will be manufactured and donated via the local United Way to a local family, and will be placed on their compromised property where their house burned down. IHC, who’s also helped in the local rebuild initiative, previously donated thousands of space heaters and other materials to aid in this relief effort. IHC also conducted a burn test last month on various housing materials to determine the ones which are the most fire-resistant.
Jordan relied on The Santiam Integration Team – a local organization based in the Canyon to help choose who would receive the free tiny house. In turn, The Santiam Integration Team – who has a running list of those who had lost their homes – analyzed various factors based on metrics and needs of the affected families to help provide the name of a family who would be one of the ones who benefitted the most from this massive donation. Although their names are yet released, Jordan said that he notified the family last Thursday. The winning family of the home is comprised of a husband, wife and two young children – ages 8 and 5 – who are currently living in a leaky trailer on a scorched piece of land
in Gates, Oregon, where once their house stood. Besides contending with a leaking roof, the family only has a microwave to cook from, and their 8-year old is going to school part-time, while the other part is online. Despite the entire loss of their home, the family’s father who Jordan spoke with was incredibly humble and grateful, and is mindful that there must be people far worse off than his family. Knowing this, the father (who works to provide what he can for his family) has hardly made any trips into the local United Way Donation Center to receive materials since the fire, because he feels that others need the donations more.
On Monday, January 18th at 10 a.m., the family will be brought down to IHC’s Front-Street factory, where they will be introduced to IHC and Tiny Mountain Houses. During this time, the family will get to experience first-hand how tiny houses are made and learn how the tiny home being built for them will be custom-built, taking into account his family’s needs. It will be delivered to his property once it’s built, and will subsequently be furnished free, with materials that the family needs. Because this is an evolving process, Jordan remarked that they hope to give more homes away and will try to build homes for needy folks.
Jordan relayed another piece of exciting news, stating that Salem is currently building a prototype community on surplus land in the city, which will act as a model for transitory houses. This model, which can be utilized nearly everywhere in the United States, will contain transitional housing (tiny homes) for use by a wide array of people, such as seniors on a fixed income, the homeless population, disabled vets, and people coming out of incarceration. Jordan stated that there has been overwhelming support from the local planning department and the city council.
The major takeaway from this radio interview, and one which Jordan finally realizes is happening in the part of his world, is “putting talk into action”. Despite the various roadblocks along the way, with the help of various facets in the community, Jordan feels they are pushing through to putting ideas into practical application.
Jordan gives the following advice to people who feel like they want to help, but don’t know how to start; he said, just think about what they can provide, depending on their resources and strengths.
Well, that’s certainly a start.
To listen to the radio interview, click on the link below. >>
>> https://bit.ly/2N84kiU
1430 KYKN Radio United Way of Meriden and Wallingford Santiam Service Integration
