‘It’s just really been a blessing’
♦ New Foundations program manager finds her reward in helping others.
When Carol Hatch moved her family to Gordon County she found a place to call home. Now she helps other longtime residents stay in the homes they’ve owned for decades.
As the program manager for New Foundations Development Inc., Hatch is based out of the Calhoun Housing Authority office and helps local qualified residents with repair costs they might not otherwise be able to afford.
“New Foundations is an instrumentality of the Housing Authority,” Hatch said. “There are things they can’t do with federal funds, so they created a nonprofit.”
CHA operates on the limitations of federal funding, but as a nonprofit, Hatch is able to fill in the gaps to help those in need stay in their homes when needed repairs arise.
“We can do things that the housing authority can’t do like repairing roofs, windows and doors for senior citizens or veterans,” Hatch said. “We’re an extra arm for them.”
Originally from Indiana, Hatch moved to Calhoun when her husband, Steve, took the general manager position at Cracker Barrel, following time in Colorado and Tennessee.
“It’s been a great place to raise my family,” she said.
Married for 35 years, the two have three grown sons and three grandchildren with one more on the way.
Having held her real estate license since 1997, her career path of helping folks find homes came to a halt around 2011 when the housing market crash slowed things down.
While volunteering around the community, Hatch was approached to take over what at that time was a program that was brand new. At first when she was offered a chance to lead New Foundations she wasn’t sure it was a good fit.
“I had no interest in it at all,” Hatch said. “I was just enjoying the break and doing some volunteer work in Dalton at the time.”
In March of 2012, she went in for an interview, and once she found out what it was all about, Hatch’s interest was sparked.
“Finally one day I came in and had an interview,” she said. “I really have enjoyed it. I’m still working with homeowners,
and I like this part of that line of work better.”
Since taking over NFD, Hatch’s job has become a bit more challenging in the aspect of finding funding. Originally, the Federal Home Loan Bank had a program to help current homeowners with repairs, but that has since changed.
“At that time, they were giving out money to homeowners — mostly veterans — for repairs,” Hatch said.
A change in the housing market, however, led to the end of that program, and now the focus is helping people purchase homes. That has led to a change in the way NFD is funded.
“When that happened, we had to come up with another way to help these homeowners, because their problems didn’t go away,” Hatch said. “They’ve put us on the back burner, but hopefully someday they do that again.”
That’s when Hatch got started applying for grants.
“We applied for a Community Home Investment Program grant back in 2017 and were awarded $300,0000,” Hatch said.
NFD has gotten several other grants since then.
“So basically, we’ve been applying for grants, and fortunately we’ve been awarded several, but we need a whole lot more,” Hatch said.
Hatch says the program is especially vital to those who have been in their homes a long time and have major repairs come up.
“After you’ve been retired, 10, 15, 20 years... it’s hard to come up with money to make repairs,” she said. “Then they come see me. I help them with their applications, and pair them with contractors.”
That’s the part of the job Hatch finds most rewarding.
“It’s just really been a blessing to me, because I get to help people,” she said. “A lot of senior citizens, widows, veterans. It has made me feel good because I can help someone. They come in when they’ve had their house for 30 or 40 years.”
Part of the reward is seeing how thankful people are after getting help with their homes.
“The people are so grateful, and that’s what’s really rewarding because I’m able to help them fill a need,” Hatch said.
Recently, NFD has expanded its focus into building new homes.
“We built one, and we’ve got land where we plan on building two more homes in the near future.”
With its most recent grant award of $400,000, Hatch says several homes in the area of the Housing Authority office should get some much needed attention.
“We’re going to focus on around seven to 10 homes and bring them up to code with repairs and rehab work,” she said.
Hatch says with the hard work of volunteers, local contractors and the City of Calhoun, the biggest need continues to be funding, and donations of time, money or unwanted property are always welcome.
For anyone needing assistance, or looking to help out those in need, New Foundations Development Inc. can be reached at 706-629-9183, or at Nfdinc.org online.