Impact Stories
Everyone deserves a safe, affordable place to call home. The stories of the people we serve prove what’s possible when communities come together to create opportunity. From first-time homebuyers overcoming financial barriers to seniors gaining the security to age in place, these real-life experiences highlight the transformational power of housing. Each impact story is a testament to resilience. To hope. Click below to explore how lives are being changed every day.
Room for Family
When Brooke Shannon and her husband moved to Gatlinburg to open an artist shop, they first lived in a small attached apartment in the bustling downtown without a full kitchen. Soon after starting their search to buy a house, they had a firm deadline they wanted to meet: Brooke was pregnant and they were determined to welcome their son into a new home.
Rising Above
Farmer Baker has felt lost since the devastating 2022 floods in Eastern Kentucky. That July night, a wall of water swept through his holler in Lower River Caney, tragically killing his wife and washing away their home. For two years after, he has lived nearby with his oldest son.
A Room of His Own
Kalynn Kirchoff had some major bumps in the road on her journey to home ownership. In 2020, she was diagnosed with melanoma cancer. In 2022, the apartment she and her son, Calan, lived in flooded.
Finding a Way
Denise Franklin lived more than 30 years in subsidized housing and then, in her parents’ home with her daughter. Now she works as a nurse and owns her own home thanks to Beyond Housing, the redevelopment and housing authority of Bristol, Virginia.
UNIQUE WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM PROVIDES AFFORDABLE HOUSING AND COMMUNITY-BASED REVITALIZATION TO SOUTHERN WEST VIRGINIA
Fahe Member Coalfield Development opened their doors in 2010 with the goal of building resilient rural communities in southern West Virginia with thriving social and financial economies.
Dayspring Health Turns Vacated Superstore into Whitley County’s One-Stop Shop for Healthcare
With support from Fahe CDFI via the Uplift America Fund and New Markets Tax Credit Program, Dayspring Health transformed an abandoned building that once housed Walmart into a state-of-the-art healthcare facility, and established a comprehensive source for healthcare in Whitley County, Kentucky.
A Home for Christmas
When Chassidy Gorrell’s marriage abruptly ended, she and her three children were cast into a harsh and unsettled reality. With nowhere to turn and nothing to call their own, Gorrell searched for affordable housing and a place to call home.
From Rescue to Respite
There was no time to think. The walls buckled, and the trailer split like kindling, water rushing through the gaps. It swallowed their furniture, their photographs, the life they’d built together. Clinging to each other, George and Sherry tried to stay upright in the torrent, their feet scraping for anything solid beneath the rising current.
Keys That Unlock Tomorrow
A single mother of three, Colley had been living in an overcrowded home with her ex-husband’s family, her children sleeping on the sofa as she struggled to provide a safe place for them. Affordable housing felt out of reach, and past financial setbacks during a difficult divorce had left her credit damaged, making homeownership seem impossible.